High-throughput and automated diagnosis of antimicrobial resistance using a cost-effective cellphone-based micro-plate reader

Routine antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) can prevent deaths due to bacteria and reduce the spread of multi-drug-resistance, but cannot be regularly performed in resource-limited-settings due to technological challenges, high-costs, and lack of trained professionals. We demonstrate an automated and cost-effective cellphone-based 96-well microtiter-plate (MTP) reader, capable of performing AST without the need for trained diagnosticians. Our system includes a 3D-printed smartphone attachment that holds and illuminates the MTP using a light-emitting-diode array. An inexpensive optical fiber-array enables the capture of the transmitted light of each well through the smartphone camera. A custom-designed application sends the captured image to a server to automatically determine well-turbidity, with results returned to the smartphone in ~1 minute. We tested this mobile-reader using MTPs prepared with 17 antibiotics targeting Gram-negative bacteria on clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae, containing highly-resistant antimicrobial profiles. Using 78 patient isolate test-plates, we demonstrated that our mobile-reader meets the FDA-defined AST criteria, with a well-turbidity detection accuracy of 98.21%, minimum-inhibitory-concentration accuracy of 95.12%, and a drug-susceptibility interpretation accuracy of 99.23%, with no very major errors. This mobile-reader could eliminate the need for trained diagnosticians to perform AST, reduce the cost-barrier for routine testing, and assist in spatio-temporal tracking of bacterial resistance

Microfluidics in Biotechnology: Quo Vadis

Winkler S, Grünberger A, Bahnemann J. Microfluidics in Biotechnology: Quo Vadis. Advances in biochemical engineering/biotechnology. 2021:1-26.The emerging technique of microfluidics offers new approaches for precisely controlling fluidic conditions on a small scale, while simultaneously facilitating data collection in both high-throughput and quantitative manners. As such, the so-called lab-on-a-chip (LOC) systems have the potential to revolutionize the field of biotechnology. But what needs to happen in order to truly integrate them into routine biotechnological applications? In this chapter, some of the most promising applications of microfluidic technology within the field of biotechnology are surveyed, and a few strategies for overcoming current challenges posed by microfluidic LOC systems are examined. In addition, we also discuss the intensifying trend (across all biotechnology fields) of using point-of-use applications which is being facilitated by new technological achievements