Microfluidic Device for Efficient Airborne Bacteria Capture and Enrichment

Abstract

Highly efficient capture and enrichment is always the key for rapid analysis of airborne pathogens. Herein we report a simple microfluidic device which is capable of fast and efficient airborne bacteria capture and enrichment. The device was validated with Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Mycobacterium smegmatis. The results showed that the efficiency can reach close to 100% in 9 min. Compared with the traditional sediment method, there is also great improvement with capture limit. In addition, various flow rate and channel lengths have been investigated to obtain the optimized condition. The high capture and enrichment might be due to the chaotic vortex flow created in the microfluidic channel by the staggered herringbone mixer (SHM) structure, which is also confirmed with flow dynamic mimicking. The device is fabricated from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), simple, cheap, and disposable, perfect for field application, especially in developing countries with very limited modern instruments.

Biomarker detection for disease diagnosis using cost-effective microfluidic platforms

“…Jing et al . 118 developed a PMMA/PDMS hybrid microfluidic device for efficient airborne bacteria capture and enrichment. The device had two PDMS plates sandwiched by two plates of PMMA using four screws for structural support.…”

Microfluidics for Detection of Airborne Pathogens: What Challenges Remain?

“…Characteristic antigen (protein)immune analyses as well as nucleic acid ana lysis by hybridization or PCR were successfully performed in microfluidic chips. Recently, the capture and enrichment of airborne bacteria by microfluidic chips was also reported [15]. By breaking the laminar flow to twisted air flow inside the microfluidic chip, increasing the contact opportunity between the channel wall and the bacteria in the airflow, the microfluidic chip can collect hundreds of bacteria within a couple of microliters of aqueous media, high enough concentration for direct immunoana lysis or nucleic acid ana lysis.…”

Droplet-based microfluidics detector for bioaerosol detection

“…In designing a system, concentration rate should be optimized by increasing the air flow rate and collection efficiency, or decreasing the volume of capture liquid preferably to microfluidic volumes, because this improves the aerosol detection sensitivity. Past studies reconciling microfluidics with aerosol collection (by deposition of aerosol in channels/half-channels) have reported concentration rates of 10 4 -10 6 min ¡1 , and have delineated the limitations with these approaches (Han and Mainelis 2008;Han et al 2010Han et al , 2011Jing et al 2013Jing et al , 2014Pardon et al 2015;Han et al 2015a,b;Foat et al 2016;Ma et al 2016). These studies have shown successes, but require further work in integration with assay platforms, clearly demonstrating end-to-end bioaerosol collection and identification, estimating limits of detection, and detailed field testing.…”