Lab-on-a-chip and diagnostic tools for COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 virus has rapidly evolved into a pandemic that is threatening public health, economics, and quality of life worldwide. The gold-standard for testing individuals for COVID-19 is using traditional RT-qPCR, which is expensive and can take up to several hours. Expanding surveillance across a global scale will call for new strategies and tests that are inexpensive, require minimal reagents, decrease assay time, and allow for simple point-of-care (POC) monitoring without need of trained personnel and with quick turnaround time. To expand the speed of COVID-19 surveillance, we are working on a point-of-care microfluidic chip to enable significantly faster and easier testing. This is based upon digital drop loop-mediated isothermal amplification that will allow for rapid testing of large populations at a reasonable cost. The device will employ a nucleic-acid based test called reverse transcriptase LAMP (RT- LAMP) that operates at a temperature of 60-65°C. RT-LAMP removes the bottleneck of thermal cycling and high temperatures required by traditional RT-qPCR thermocycling. The simplicity, speed, and sensitivity will enable early treatment and response to infection.