Invention Description Lyophilization is a critical process for stabilizing reagents in point-of-care (POC) diagnostics, effectively eliminating the need for cold chain storage and preventing liquid evaporation. While this technology is essential for developing robust field-deployable devices, current industry standards are limited to producing reagents...

Invention Description Rapid and reliable nucleic acid assays are critical for diagnosing infectious diseases at the point of need, yet most systems rely on complex, expensive instrumentation and trained personnel. These requirements limit access to timely diagnostics in low-resource, remote, or decentralized settings. Many platforms typically require...

Invention Description Wireless capacitive pressure sensors have been widely studied for health monitoring applications including continues monitoring of blood flow in patients suffering from high blood pressure, tracking of bladder pressure in patients with urine incontinence, and monitoring intracranial pressure in patients experiencing traumatic...

Invention Description Understanding of the pathobiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has long been fragmented, with much research centered around biological mechanisms including amyloid β or tau proteins, inflammation, cell death pathways, glia, mitochondria and more. While these all deal with real facets in the biology of AD, they are limited...

Implementing liquid-based assays, such as PCR and LAMP, is difficult in POC microfluidic devices, due to bubble formation. To mitigate this, auxiliary metering systems or actuators are required to regulate consistent flow rates. This can make the microfluidic device more complicated to operate, increases cost, and limits rapid prototyping, ultimately...

Point-of-care (POC) testing techniques are essential in molecular diagnostics, particularly in resource-limited settings. The first step in molecular diagnostics is sample preparation which may include extraction of nucleic acids (NAs). Simple and efficient NA extraction is crucial for downstream applications such as pathogen detection, genetic analysis,...

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s are affecting an increasing number, with annual new diagnoses approaching one-half million; and total cost, $150 billion. Early diagnosis and treatment are important for optimal outcomes, yet there is currently no test to detect such diseases in their early, asymptomatic stages. Active immuniza-tion...

Diverse pathologies, especially related to early protein misfolding and aggregation, are observed in different neurodegenerative diseases. Some protein variants result in different proteinopathies that vary from patient to patient, highlighting a need for personalized diagnostic tests to enable accurate diagnoses. Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) refers...

Protein misfolding plays a role in degenerative diseases, cancer evolution, synthetic biology, bioproducts, and more. Despite its importance in all of these fields, researchers often struggle to understand even the basic mechanisms of protein misfolding. For example, there is no tool to determine how much misfolding is happening inside of any given...

Antibiotic resistance is a significant public health threat, in part due to the misuse and overuse of broad-spectrum antibiotics. Most antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) techniques are slow and culture-based, taking days to produce results, which delays treatment and can put patients at risk. Dipstick-type tests and manual microscopy are faster,...