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Development of a point-of-care device for patients with chronic kidney disease
Development of a point-of-care device for patients with chronic kidney disease
Pavel Dubský
Recently the first self-test device based on capillary electrophoresis was presented, developed by startup company Medimate and based on research initiated in the BIOS/Lab on a Chip group.1 The figure shows the functioning of the device which employs a handheld reader and disposable glass chip. The chip contains a number of innovations, amongst others sealed electrode reservoirs, which for the first time make the electrophoresis platform useable for point-of-care applications.
1) A cartridge containing a pre-filled microfluidic chip; 2) the cartridge is opened, the chip seal is removed and a drop of blood is deposited at the sample opening; 3) the cartridge is inserted in the Multireader and the measurement is started.
In this postdoc project this microfluidic chip will be further developed for application in the self-management of patients with chronic kidney disease. If such patients monitor certain parameters in blood and urine, it is expected that they can adjust their lifestyle and increase quality and duration of their life. Analytes that we aim for in the project are potassium, calcium, phosphate and creatinine in blood and sodium in urine. Each of these analytes in combination with their matrix (blood, urine) will offer different challenges for example in sample preparation (injection), separation and detection.
1. |
A. Floris et al., A prefilled, ready-to-use electrophoresis based Lab-on-a-Chip device for monitoring lithium in blood, Lab Chip, 2010, 10, 1799 |
