Assessing the Relevance of Protein Immobilization for the Rational Design of Paper-Based Analytical Devices

An essential step to improve clinical outcomes entails developing new methods for monitoring biomarkers. Although specialized laboratories in metropolitan areas can provide such services, there is a need to develop low-cost, point-of-care (POC) diagnostic devices to complete general screening tasks. Existing POC assays largely rely on slower, more costly methods that are difficult to implement and/or lack quantitative capabilities. Combining the sample handling capabilities of microfluidics with established chemical protocols, paper-based microfluidic analytical devices (μPADs), have enabled the much more efficient quantification of a wide variety of analytes in biological fluids than their bench-top counterparts. Although a number of advantages (high throughput, low sample requirements, and low-cost) of μPADs have been reported, a number of drawbacks have hindered their deployment into the clinical field.

Funding for this project was provided by a program funded by Prisma Health and Clemson University.

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