CPM Seminar

Paper-Based Microfluidic Biosensors for Disease Diagnostics

inyu Liu

Mechanical Engineering
McGill University

Paper, as a ubiquitous material in everyday life, has been reinvented into low-cost yet effective microfluidic platforms for bioanalysis. In this seminar, I will present our recent research on developing new types of paper-based biosensing platforms for molecular diagnosis of life-threatening diseases. The research has been focused on designing new paper devices, investigating advanced detection mechanisms, integrating functional biosensing nanomaterials, and optimizing analytical performance. These efforts have enabled unique features of these diagnostic platforms, including low material and manufacturing costs, superior analytical performance, simplified device operation, and excellent user-friendliness. The paper-based platforms I will discuss include: (i) a shape memory polymer (SMP) actuated microfluidic platform for autonomous enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA); (ii) an electrochemical biosensor array for multiplexed diagnosis of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection; and (iii) a zinc oxide nanowire (ZnO NW) biosensor for ultrasensitive detection of glucose and HIV protein biomarkers. Our ongoing efforts on clinical sample testing of these platforms will also be briefly introduce