Source multiplexing enhances the number of channels of a multispectral sensor.

This paper presents preliminary work on a method to increase the number of detection channels of a commercial 6-channel spectrometric sensor, by employing a set of multiplexed spectrally colored illumination sources. A demonstrator has been built and tested on a set of independent dyes. The results suggest successful enhancement of the number of detection channels. More tests are needed to provide quantitative performance evaluation, and to demonstrate viability in a clinical setting. Clinical Relevance- The technique presented in this paper shows promise to provide a viable method for multispectral sensing in highly-miniaturized systems such as in-vivo sensing capsules.

Creasensor: SIMPLE technology for creatinine detection in plasma.

The lab-on-a-chip (LOC) field has witnessed an excess of new technology concepts, especially for the point-of-care (POC) applications. However, only few concepts reached the POC market often because of challenging integration with pumping and detection systems as well as with complex biological assays. Recently, a new technology termed SIMPLE was introduced as a promising POC platform due to its features of being self-powered, autonomous in liquid manipulations, cost-effective and amenable to mass production. In this paper, we improved the SIMPLE design and fabrication and demonstrated for the first time that the SIMPLE platform can be successfully integrated with biological assays by quantifying creatinine, biomarker for chronic kidney disease, in plasma samples. To validate the robustness of the SIMPLE technology, we integrated a SIMPLE-based microfluidic cartridge with colorimetric read-out system into the benchtop Creasensor. This allowed us to perform on-field validation of the Creasensor in a single-blind study with 16 plasma samples, showing excellent agreement between measured and spiked creatinine concentrations (ICC: 0.97). Moreover, the range of clinically relevant concentrations (0.76-20 mg/dL), the sample volume (5 µL) and time-to-result of only 5 min matched the Creasensor performance with both lab based and POC benchmark technologies. This study demonstrated for the first time outstanding robustness of the SIMPLE in supporting the implementation of biological assays. The SIMPLE flexibility in liquid manipulation and compatibility with different sample matrices opens up numerous opportunities for implementing more complex assays and expanding its POC applications portfolio.