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High-Performance Paper Microfluidic Malaria Test for Low-Resource Settings

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Frugal Innovation in Bioengineering for the Detection of Infectious Diseases

Abstract

In this chapter, we describe the application of paper microfluidics to develop a high-performance malaria test appropriate for use in low-resource settings. Malaria ranks in the top three for infectious disease burden worldwide, resulting in about two million deaths per year. Gold standard diagnostic tests for malaria use multistep protocols that require laboratory facilities and are often not accessible to patients in the developing world. Lateral flow tests are simple bioassays that have been used in low-resource settings for decades but can lack the sensitivity needed for clinical utility. Using paper microfluidic tools to automate the multistep sample processing that is characteristic of laboratory tests, we have developed a signal-amplified immunoassay for malaria detection with a higher sensitivity and a lower limit of detection than conventional lateral flow tests. Alternative fluid control tools are described within the same malaria system, and their potential for use in other systems is discussed.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Tinny Liang

  2. School of Chemical, Biological, and Environmental Engineering, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Elain Fu

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  1. Tinny Liang
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  2. Elain Fu
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Correspondence to Elain Fu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA

    Arvind K. Chavali

  2. Illumina, San Diego, California, USA

    Ramesh Ramji

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Liang, T., Fu, E. (2018). High-Performance Paper Microfluidic Malaria Test for Low-Resource Settings. In: Chavali, A., Ramji, R. (eds) Frugal Innovation in Bioengineering for the Detection of Infectious Diseases. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66647-1_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66647-1_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66645-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66647-1

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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