Bioluminescence Based Lab-on-a-Disc

Due to the rising cost of health care, hospitals have been driven to reduce the amount of diagnostic tests being performed, compromising patient treatment. In addition, central chemistry labs are often off-site from the hospital, so when diagnostic test are performed there is often a time delay of anywhere from 4 to 72 hours to get results, again compromising patient treatment. Consequently there is a need for rapid, accurate, small scale sample analysis at the point-of-care (POC). Centrifuge based microfluidic platforms (Lab-on-a-disc) have been commercially used for high throughput screening and clinical diagnostic applications using modified compact-discs. These CDs feature microscale fluid paths, reaction chambers and valves; capillary action and centrifugal forces from the spinning disc moves fluid along the pathways. Up to this point, bioluminescence has not been used as a read out due to the stability of the reagents. This invention solves this problem by using a fabrication technique that is able to safely package thermally labile bioluminescent reagents in lyophilized form for long term storage in the reaction wells. At the POC, a sample is introduced to multiple reaction wells, through centrifugal force, where it dissolves the reagents and initiates the luminescent reaction, where a luminescence signal is then transmitted through a window to a photo detector giving an accurate measure of multiple analytes.

Benefits
This device is able to deliver specified volumes to multiple reagent reservoirs making it useful for multi-analyte measurements in a point of care (POC) device. Point of care biosensors are generally clinical quality, analytical devices used for in vitro diagnostics (IVD). Given the potential they have for reducing healthcare cost, POC devices have become a multibillion dollar market and are a fast growing sector within IVD testing. In 1998, POC sales in the US were at $2.4 billion and were projected to be at $4 billion by 2003.

Stage of Development
A patent application has been filed under the PCT with publication number WO 2007/035350 A2.
This technology is part of an active and ongoing research program and has been demonstrated to work in proof-of-concept experiments which include a working prototype. They are seeking partners for further development and manufacturing of the working product. It is available for licensing under either exclusive or non-exclusive terms.

Additional Info
*Bartholomeusz, D, Davies, R, Yang, TM, Andrade, J, �Method For Implementing Bioluminescence-Based Analytical Assays In Nanoliter Volumes,� Luminescence, 19(3), 134, 2004.
*http://www.bioen.utah.edu/faculty/JDA/_vti_cnf/Controls/main_view.html

Inventor(s): Daniel Bartholomeusz

Type of Offer: Licensing



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