PhD Student, Abrar Al Maghribi: PhD Dissertation Defense: “Point of Care Infectious Disease Diagnosis via Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification Integrated into a Sample to Answer Device”

Please join us for PhD Student Abrar Al Maghribi’s PhD Dissertation Defense Presentation on “Point of Care Infectious Disease Diagnosis via Isothermal Nucleic Acid Amplification Integrated into a Sample to Answer Device”

Sexually transmitted diseases caused by Chlamydia trachomatous (CT) and Neisseria gonorrhea (NG) remain a major global public health concerns causing over 351.7 million infections per year. Dengue fever is a mosquito born acute illness caused by Dengue Virus (DENV), is also a rising global public health concern. Proper diagnosis of these infections facilitates proper patient management which reduces long term complications and mortality, and helps prevent disease spread. Point of care sensitive and specific diagnostics are essential for low resource settings. We have developed a prototype system consisting of a cartridge and compact instrument that can execute sample preparation, isothermal Loop Mediated amplification (LAMP) and lateral flow detection of these pathogens. For CT and NG, we have established singelplex and duplex LAMP assays, in liquid and paper form, with lateral flow detection. We have performed inhibition testing, demonstrated full process execution outside the cartridge, then implement the process in the cartridge and device, demonstrating detection down to 100 EB/mL for CT and 100 CFU/mL NG in urine. For DENV, we established a pan-serotype singleplex RT-LAMP assay and a duplex assay with MS2 as internal amplification control, in liquid and paper form. We demonstrated that the master-mix in paper form is stable upon storage at RT and 40^oC over 8 weeks. For sample preparation starting from whole blood we performed plasma separation coupled to amplification, with inhibitor testing. The next step is a front to back experiment and implementation in a modified cartridge for the detection of all DENV serotypes. The herein described assay processes and prototype systems can be further developed to enable point of care diagnosis for these and other pathogens in low resource settings.

Date: March 24, 2021

Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Location: Via Zoom