Labonfoil

Labonfoil consists in a ground-breaking diagnostic system based on smart cards and skin patches combined with a portable reader. This small lab developed by European researchers can already detect cocaine consumption, monitor colon cancer, identify bacteria in food and analyse environmental contamination.

Applications

This system has different “Labcards” and patches for the following applications:

• Climate change: LabCard™ for marine algae analyisis, CO2 sequestration and toxic blooms.
• Food health: LabCard™ for Salmonella spp. and Campylobacter spp. detection in slaughter houses and farms.
• Colorectal cancer: LabCard™ for Colorectal Cancer monitoring using blood.
• Drug abuse: Skin patch for cocaine consumption testing of professional drivers.

These all use a special, credit card-sized, plastic test unit -- a LabCard, which is pre-loaded with the appropriate reagents for the test required. The LabCard is made from injection moulded plastic with the appropriate reservoirs and valves as required for a particular specific analysis. A thin film of plastic is laminated on top to seal in the reagents and this is flexible enough to act as valves when moving the liquids though the various stages such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to replicate and increase the DNA.

Labonfoil reader unit

LabCard™

How it works

The sample is sucked up into the supplied syringe where it mixes with the initial reagents and is then squirted into a reservoir on the LabCard™. The LabCard™ is then inserted into a LabCardReader™ reader unit that automatically heats the LabCard™, and opens and closes the valves on it to move the test sample through the preparation stages. The last step is to detect fluorescence that indicates the presence of the target DNA which can be in concentrations at low as a few femtograms of DNA in 30 minutes.

Labcard reader computer interface

Advantages

For some applications such as pathogen testing or in an Accident and Emergency Department being able to provide test result in 30 minutes rather than two days is one of the main advantages.

Another advantage is the dramatic cost reduction based on the use of films and polymers instead of wafer substrate. The future mass production of these novel diagnostic components will be guaranteed by the development of manufacturing equipment. This will provide, in the end, a standardised solution to manufacture truly ultra-low-cost Lab-on-a-chip microsystems.