Disposable silicon-based all-in-one micro-qPCR for apid on-site detection of pathogens

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1
• Main Authors: Nunez-Bajo Estefania, Silva Pinto Collins Alexander, Kasimatis, Michael, Yasin, Cotur, Asfour Tarek, Tanriverdi Ugur, Grell, Max, Kaisti Matti, Senesi Guglielmo, Stevenson, Karen, Firat, Güder
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group 02.12.2020; Nature Publishing Group UK
• Subjects: Coronaviruses; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Diagnostic systems; DNA; Low cost; Medical treatment; Nucleic acids; Paratuberculosis; Pathogens; Real time; Severe acute respiratory syndrome; Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; Signs and symptoms; Silicon; Viral diseases
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-19911-6

Rapid screening and low-cost diagnosis play a crucial role in choosing the correct course of intervention when dealing with highly infectious pathogens. This is especially important if the disease-causing agent has no effective treatment, such as the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, and shows no or similar symptoms to other common infections. Here, we report a disposable silicon-based integrated Point-of-Need transducer (TriSilix) for real-time quantitative detection of pathogen-specific sequences of nucleic acids. TriSilix can be produced at wafer-scale in a standard laboratory (37 chips of 10 × 10 × 0.65 mm in size can be produced in 7 h, costing ~0.35 USD per device). We are able to quantitatively detect a 563 bp fragment of genomic DNA of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis through real-time PCR with a limit-of-detection of 20 fg, equivalent to a single bacterium, at the 35th cycle. Using TriSilix, we also detect the cDNA from SARS-CoV-2 (1 pg) with high specificity against SARS-CoV (2003).Designing efficient, rapid and low-cost diagnostic technologies targeting nucleic acids remains a challenge. Here the authors present a disposable silicon-based integrated Point-of-Need transducer produced in a standard wet lab and able to chemically-amplify and detect pathogen-specific sequences of nucleic acids quantitatively in real-time.