Integrated self-regulating resistive heating for isothermal nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) in Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) devices

Tamas Pardy; Indrek Tulp; Clemens Kremer; Toomas Rang; Ray Stewart

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0189968

Integrated self-regulating resistive heating for isothermal nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) in Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) devices

PLoS One. 2017 Dec 21;12(12):e0189968. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0189968. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Tamas Pardy^{1

2}, Indrek Tulp¹, Clemens Kremer¹, Toomas Rang², Ray Stewart³

Affiliations

¹ Selfdiagnostics Deutschland GmbH, Leipzig, Saxony, Germany.
² Thomas Johann Seebeck Institute of Electronics, Tallinn University of Technology, Tallinn, Estonia.
³ Bay Materials LLC (in commercial partnership with Heatron LLC), Fremont, California, United States of America.

Abstract

Isothermal nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) in a Lab-on-a-Chip (LoC) format promise to bring high-accuracy, non-instrumented rapid tests to the point of care. Reliable rapid tests for infectious diseases allow for early diagnosis and treatment, which in turn enables better containment of potential outbreaks and fewer complications. A critical component to LoC NAATs is the heating element, as all NAAT protocols require incubation at elevated temperatures. We propose a cheap, integrated, self-regulating resistive heating solution that uses 2xAAA alkaline batteries as the power source, can maintain temperatures in the 60-63°C range for at least 25 minutes, and reaches the target range from room temperature in 5 minutes. 4 heating element samples with different electrical characteristics were evaluated in a thermal mock-up for a LoC NAAT device. An optimal heating element candidate was chosen based on temperature profiling. The optimal candidate was further evaluated by thermal modelling via finite element analysis of heat transfer and demonstrated suitable for isothermal nucleic acid amplification.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Lab-On-A-Chip Devices*
Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques / methods*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Sächsische AufbauBank project SAB#100204668, Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase II funding (Project ID: 666852, url: http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/197912_en.html), Estonian Research Council Institutional Research Project IUT19-11, Horizon 2020 ERA-chair Grant ‘Cognitive Electronics COEL’ —H2020-WIDESPREAD-2014-2 (Agreement number: 668995; project TTU code VFP15051), TAR16013 Center of Excellence ‘EXCITE IT,’ Study IT in Estonia Program. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.