Multiplexed Pathogen Detection from Whole Blood for Rapid Detection of Sepsis Abstract Sepsis, an adverse auto-immune response to an infection often causing life-threatening complications, results in the highest mortality and treatment cost of any illness in US hospitals. In this proposal we propose a novel microchip to bridge the existing gaps in the pathogen detection (poor sensitivity and long processing time). Our strategy in the proposed work is performing picolitre volume RT-LAMP reactions on dried blood using our in-house developed bi-phasic reaction to achieve a highly sensitive pathogen count (1-3 CFU/mL). The realization of this microwell array platform potentially overcomes the limitations in sensitivity and time of response of the current blood cultures. We expect that this device will greatly contribute to the faster rapid diagnosis of sepsis. As a final goal, we anticipate that this platform will replace the use of blood culture for pathogen detection.
Multiplexed Pathogen Detection from Whole Blood for Rapid Detection of Sepsis We propose a novel microchip to bridge the existing gaps in the pathogen detection (poor sensitivity and long processing time). We perform pL volume RT-LAMP reactions on dried blood using our in-house developed bi-phasic reaction to achieve this goal. We anticipate that this platform will replace the use of blood culture for pathogen detection.