Automated POC Extraction of Sputum-Borne Bacterial Nucleic Acids In the Clinic

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sputum is an increasingly promising noninvasive matrix for diagnosing and monitoring patients with lung conditions. Tuberculosis drug resistance is determined by culture or molecular analysis of bacteria in sputum; lungcancer cells can appear in sputum as an early indicator of disease; absence of bacteria in sputum is a rule-out criterion for broad-spectrum antibiotics in pneumonia. Yet the enormous challenge of extracting nucleic acids from sputum-with its exceptionalviscoelasticity, heterogeneity of mucin amounts and cross-linking, and hydration levels-is a barrier to advances in lung disease clinical research and patient care. This Phase I SBIR encompasses early work on a novel tool for sputum processing: acartridge that automatically carries out a sequence of chemical, mechanical, and biochemical processes on a sputum sample, culminating in the output of isolated DNA and RNA from the cells contained in the starting sample. The sputum sample processing