Siphon-Controlled Automation on a Lab-on-a-Disc Using Event-Triggered Dissolvable Film Valves

Within microfluidic technologies, the centrifugal microfluidic Lab-on-a-Disc (LoaD) platform offers great potential for use at the PoC and in low-resource settings due to its robustness and the ability to port and miniaturize 'wet bench' laboratory protocols. We present the combination of 'event-triggered dissolvable film valves' with a centrifugo-pneumatic siphon structure to enable control and timing, through changes in disc spin-speed, of the release and incubations of eight samples/reagents/wash buffers. Based on these microfluidic techniques, we integrated and automated a chemiluminescent immunoassay for detection of the CVD risk factor marker C-reactive protein displaying a limit of detection (LOD) of 44.87 ng mL(-1) and limit of quantitation (LoQ) of 135.87 ng mL(-1).

Automated summary

The centrifugal microfluidic Lab-on-a-Disc platform combines event-triggered dissolvable film valves with a centrifugo-pneumatic siphon structure to control and time the release and incubations of samples/reagents/wash buffers through changes in disc spin-speed. This platform is suitable for integrating and automating chemiluminescent immunoassay for detection of C-reactive protein marker, with a limit of detection of 44.87 ng mL(-1) and limit of quantitation of 135.87 ng mL(-1).