An Integrated Rotation-Programmed and Gravity-Driven Microfluidic Platform for Direct Bacterial Detection from Whole Blood

For the precise molecular detection of bloodstream infection, sample processing is critical, as it involves purifying pathogenic DNA to circumvent the inhibitory effect of complex blood components. To integrate the cumbersome workflow encompassing the entire process to realize automated operation, passive methods such as gravity-driven microfluidics eliminate additional driving and controlling modules to simplify device setup and operations. Nevertheless, gravity-driven microfluidics encounters challenges in handling complex flow control and necessitates a relatively large volume of fluid to initiate the flow. In this study, to harness the simplicity of gravity for manipulating the cumbersome processing and achieving the automated detection of bacterial pathogens from whole blood, a novel rotation-programmed microfluidic platform was developed. Through simple procedural rotation of the chip, DNA extraction, LAMP reaction, and detection were integrated into the gravity-driven microfluidic platform. Complex handling procedures, such as sample processing including adsorption, washing, and elution, can be readily automated by antibiotic-modified magnetic nanoparticles on the chip. The sample-to-answer process was completed within 1.5 h, and the limit of detection for S. aureus from whole blood was 10 2 CFU mL –1 . Machine learning-based image processing enabled rapid and accurate result readout through colorimetric detection. Beyond the diagnosis of bloodstream infections, this platform can be potentially extended to other complex and multistep processing applications, such as protein assay, by adjusting the design and programming.