TY - JOUR
T1 - A Lab-in-a-Fiber optofluidic device using droplet microfluidics and laser-induced fluorescence for virus detection
AU - Parker, Helen E.
AU - Sengupta, Sanghamitra
AU - Harish, Achar V.
AU - Soares, Ruben R. G.
AU - Joensson, Haakan N.
AU - Margulis, Walter
AU - Russom, Aman
AU - Laurell, Fredrik
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by a Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation Grant (2016.0104). W.M. acknowledges support by the Office of Naval Research Global (Award N62909-20-1-2033). H.P. acknowledges support from KTH Life Sciences Platform and the Lars Hiertas Memorial Foundation. We would like to thank Tharagan Kumar for helpful discussions and assistance with sourcing experimental supplies, Frans Forsberg and João Manoel Barbosa Pereira for technical support at RISE, Laura Barrett for carrying out aluminum deposition, and Cristine C. Kores and Andrius Zukauskas for assistance with dicing fibers.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/3/3
Y1 - 2022/3/3
N2 - Microfluidics has emerged rapidly over the past 20 years and has been investigated for a variety of applications from life sciences to environmental monitoring. Although continuous-flow microfluidics is ubiquitous, segmented-flow or droplet microfluidics offers several attractive features. Droplets can be independently manipulated and analyzed with very high throughput. Typically, microfluidics is carried out within planar networks of microchannels, namely, microfluidic chips. We propose that fibers offer an interesting alternative format with key advantages for enhanced optical coupling. Herein, we demonstrate the generation of monodisperse droplets within a uniaxial optofluidic Lab-in-a-Fiber scheme. We combine droplet microfluidics with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection achieved through the development of an optical side-coupling fiber, which we term a periscope fiber. This arrangement provides stable and compact alignment. Laser-induced fluorescence offers high sensitivity and low detection limits with a rapid response time making it an attractive detection method for in situ real-time measurements. We use the well-established fluorophore, fluorescein, to characterize the Lab-in-a-Fiber device and determine the generation of ∼ 0.9 nL droplets. We present characterization data of a range of fluorescein concentrations, establishing a limit of detection (LOD) of 10 nM fluorescein. Finally, we show that the device operates within a realistic and relevant fluorescence regime by detecting reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) products in the context of COVID-19 diagnostics. The device represents a step towards the development of a point-of-care droplet digital RT-LAMP platform.
AB - Microfluidics has emerged rapidly over the past 20 years and has been investigated for a variety of applications from life sciences to environmental monitoring. Although continuous-flow microfluidics is ubiquitous, segmented-flow or droplet microfluidics offers several attractive features. Droplets can be independently manipulated and analyzed with very high throughput. Typically, microfluidics is carried out within planar networks of microchannels, namely, microfluidic chips. We propose that fibers offer an interesting alternative format with key advantages for enhanced optical coupling. Herein, we demonstrate the generation of monodisperse droplets within a uniaxial optofluidic Lab-in-a-Fiber scheme. We combine droplet microfluidics with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection achieved through the development of an optical side-coupling fiber, which we term a periscope fiber. This arrangement provides stable and compact alignment. Laser-induced fluorescence offers high sensitivity and low detection limits with a rapid response time making it an attractive detection method for in situ real-time measurements. We use the well-established fluorophore, fluorescein, to characterize the Lab-in-a-Fiber device and determine the generation of ∼ 0.9 nL droplets. We present characterization data of a range of fluorescein concentrations, establishing a limit of detection (LOD) of 10 nM fluorescein. Finally, we show that the device operates within a realistic and relevant fluorescence regime by detecting reverse-transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) products in the context of COVID-19 diagnostics. The device represents a step towards the development of a point-of-care droplet digital RT-LAMP platform.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125691313&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-022-07306-0
DO - 10.1038/s41598-022-07306-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 35241725
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 12
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
M1 - 3539
ER -