Enabling Highly Sensitive and Specific Detection from Undiluted Blood Using Paper Sensors

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

Point-of-care devices require simple yet inexpensive platforms with high sensitivity from complex media. Paper is the least expensive platform for assay development and often allows results to be obtained faster than conventional sensors. Current efforts to improve paper-based detection technologies rely on physically adsorbed ligands (with limited ligand amount and activity), rely on blocking agents to passivate nonspecific protein adsorption (with limiting detection sensitivity and suitable only for simple media or diluted samples), and suffers from low sample retention due to the rapid evaporation of samples (typically receiving less than 50% of the original sample in the detection zone). Zwitterionic poly(carboxybetaine) (PCB) surface coatings have been able to achieve highly sensitive and specific detection from undiluted human plasma and serum. The objective of this work is to realize inexpensive, yet highly sensitive paper-based detection from complex media using zwitterionic chemistry.