Prompt HIV Point-of-Care Sample Preparation

Jeffrey Burke of Prompt Diagnostics, Inc. in the U.S. will develop a low-cost, automated platform integrating blood sample input, plasma separation, and HIV RNA extraction for HIV diagnostic testing. The platform will be based on magnetofluidic cartridge technology in which sequential bioassay steps are conducted via transfer of magnetic beads between reagents: red blood cell-binding beads in the plasma separation step and RNA-binding beads in the virion lysis step. A prototype cartridge will be built and optimized, including reagents in shelf-stable formats, and a low-cost, battery-powered device will be built to house the cartridge and drive the transfer of magnetic beads. The prototype platform will be tested for RNA quality and extraction efficiency, using blood samples spiked with HIV virions and comparing directly to standard clinical laboratory procedures.