Innovation That Matters

| Photo source Cranfield University

Could 'origami' sensors detect disease?

Health & Wellbeing

These devices change colour when certain illnesses are present in wastewater

Spotted: Climate change and population growth, along with faster means of travel and poverty, have made the spread of infectious diseases easier than ever. Significant outbreaks of communicable diseases like SARS, Ebola, Swine Flu, and COVID-19 have occurred all within the past two decades, and it’s likely that the coming decades will see similar pandemics and epidemics. Now, university researchers have a solution that could help diseases to be detected faster.

To contain and prevent outbreaks, consistent monitoring has become necessary for rapid detection, and wastewater surveillance is emerging as a favourite solution because of its ability to monitor community-wide trends with less effort. Nevertheless, current wastewater surveillance techniques endure significant delays between sample collection and analysis, which is why Cranfield University scientists have developed an alternative. 

The team created microfluidic, wax-printed paper devices folded like origami that can identify biomarkers in wastewater to track diseases. Containing chemicals that will react and cause a fluorescent colour to emerge on the paper through loop-mediated isothermal amplification, all signals from the paper can be read with a mobile phone camera.   

As opposed to the 24-48 hours previous wastewater testing methods took, this method returns accurate results in around 1.5 hours, allowing early detection and management of infectious diseases that could spread rapidly in hours. Beyond its faster analysis times, this portable method is both user-friendly and costs less.

The device was used to test the wastewater of quarantining sites during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its findings were recently published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science. The researchers, led by Professor Zhugen Yang, have secured a grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and support from the Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership Scheme to conduct more testing.

Written By: Joshua Solomon

Email: Zhugen.Yang@cranfield.ac.uk

Website: cranfield.ac.uk

Contact: cranfield.ac.uk/people