TriSilix is a “micro laboratory” on a chip that performs a miniature version of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on the spot. PCR can detect viruses and bacteria in biological samples such as bodily fluids, faeces, or environmental samples. This lab-on-a-chip can process and present results in a matter of minutes, and contains a DNA sensor, temperature detector and heater to automate the testing process. It is powered by a smartphone battery with enough power for 35 tests on a single charge. The researchers developed methods to produce the device in a standard laboratory, potentially allowing it to be produced anywhere in the world. The researchers have used TriSilix to detect SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), flu, colds and UTIs.
The lead researcher for TriSilix is Imperial’s Dr Firat Güder
Disposable Silicon-based All-in-One Micro-qPCR for Rapid On-Site Detection
Rapid screening and low-cost diagnosis play a crucial role in choosing the correct course of intervention e.g., drug therapy, quarantine, no action etc. 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 (the pathogen causing COVID-19), and shows no or similar symptoms to other common infections. We report a silicon-based integrated Point-of-Need (PoN) transducer (TriSilix) that can chemically-amplify and detect pathogen-specific sequences of nucleic acids (NA) quantitatively in real-time.
