Sensitive Detection Using Microfluidics and Nonlinear Amplification.

摘要

Rapid detection of small particles such as pathogens, environmental pollutants, and microorganisms is important for both the security and health of society at large. The main goal of this proposal is to establish the scientific foundations for rapidly detecting small particles at low concentrations by combining controlled chemical autocatalytic amplification and stochastic confinement of small particles with the microfluidic expertise that has been developed in Pi's laboratories. We focus on developing computational models to predict the optimal single step amplification and multi-step amplification cascades, and we will compare these models to existing biological amplification networks, including blood clotting and apoptosis.