Jose’s design of a genetic analysis chip that can be powered from the USB port of a laptop
I strongly believe that the ultimate goal of engineers is helping to improve the people’s quality of life. Consistent with this thought I joined the Lab-On-Chip (LOC) and microfluidics communities in 2008. In this work I collaborated with the group of Dr. Chris Backhouse, a highly multidisciplinary team that that combined the efforts of specialists in life sciences and engineering.
Genetic tests for medical diagnosis are nowadays extremely expensive. My PhD project is part of a long term effort to integrate the LOC and microelectronics CMOS technologies in order to create genetic analysis instruments fully contained in a single chip. In this project I developed a new thermal control technology to produce manufacturable LOC systems. In this approach, the system depends upon a single dominant variable that can be easily controlled, making the system insensitive to external perturbations. Operation in uncontrolled environments with minimum infrastructure is then feasible. With this concept we built a LOC system for genetic amplification in a new polymer chip architecture. In the system a thin film heater that is also a sensor is highly integrated to the reaction chamber. This integration plus the homogeneous temperature provided by the heater result in unusual temperature sensing accuracy, and a greatly simplified calibration process. By keeping tight microfabrication tolerances, the repeatability of the system is further ensured, eliminating per-device calibration. Reducing the complexity and cost of calibration to this level allows for mass production of ready-to-use, affordable devices.
Other technologies that support our robust control approach were also developed, including an automated method to precisely distribute heat in the system space. This method also enabled the use of aluminum for the fabrication of planar heaters/sensors, replacing expensive metals, such as platinum or gold, commonly used in LOC. The use of aluminum reduces dramatically the fabrication cost and makes our technology CMOS-compatible. CMOS integration will enable a fully contained system that could be packaged in a USB key and cost a few dollars. Such a system would make possible performing rapid and accurate screening of cancer, genetic anomalies and infectious diseases at the point of care. This technology would certainly revolutionize and enhance the practice of medicine.