Automated Point-of-Care Pancreatic Cancer Diagnostic
Detected pancreatic cancer cell derived exosomes from human serum at concentrations modeling precancerous stages by developing an automated, microfluidics based point-of-care diagnostic device. Created automated, cost-effective, on-chip serum processing and diagnosis protocol involving 3D printed encasingdesigned using SolidWorks, Arduino based microcontroller, and image processing using MATLAB.
Bioengineering Senior Design Award
1st Honorable Mention - SEAS Senior Design Competition
Senior Design Competition Presentation Video
Motivation
Point of care diagnostics still require significant manual pre-processing with expensive, non-portable equipment. To make point of care diagnostics a reality, complete sample processing needs to take place on-chip at the patient bedside.
![](/images/seniorDesign/goals.png)
Workflow
The device brings diagnosis to the point of care: a physician injects a patient blood sample into our PDMS chip (which uses a size-based filter as a centrifuge substitute), and the sample is automatically processed to generate a diagnosis. The iPhone app videos and analyzes the fluorescence of tagged molecules to provide a diagnosis.
![](/images/seniorDesign/workflow.png)
Sample Processing
The automation involves arduino-programming to control a servo motor to rotate a series of syringes to dispense reagents on a timed basis, a solenoid to push a needle to puncture parafilm used to hold the reagents in the syringes via negative pressure for reagent dispensing, and a pump to remove fluids after each incubation period. This processes enables GPC1 positive exosomes to be tagged with fluorescent antibodies, enabling them to be imaged by the iPhone.
![](/images/seniorDesign/process.png)
Device Design
The CAD model was designed in SolidWorks and 3D printed. The syringes were sealed with parafilm to create a vaccum in the tube to hold the liquid until the film is punctured by the needle attached to the solenoid. The syringes are held in a rotating disk which positions the appropriate reagent at the necessary time, as controlled by the microcontroller.
![](/images/seniorDesign/cadModel.png)
![](/images/seniorDesign/inside.png)