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,...

Cardiovascular disease is responsible for an estimated 17.9 million deaths each year, making it the leading cause of death worldwide. Continuous heart health monitoring way is the best preventative for heart failure. However, standard monitoring devices, including ECG and PPG, require direct physical contact, which can be difficult for certain patient...

Heart failure is a serious global burden affecting more than 64 million people worldwide. It has high morbidity and mortality and poor quality of life, making it a major public health priority. N-terminal proBNP (NT-pro-BNP) is a well-established clinical biomarker for monitoring and managing heart failure. Regular and frequent monitoring of patients...

Detection and quantification of low-abundance biomarkers is essential to early disease detection, monitoring and treatment. While many techniques, have been developed for measuring single molecules, all require signal amplification, via enzyme amplification, or fluorescence or gold nanoparticle probes, which come with their own unique drawbacks, including...

Acute pulmonary infections, or pneumonia, are a leading cause of infectious death worldwide with more than 2.3 million deaths each year. Existing strategies for diagnosing pneumonia are based on clinical, radiological and microbial criteria, which is time-consuming, low accuracy, and subject to interobserver variability. Furthermore, obtaining a lower...

Detection, identification and quantification of molecular biomarkers, such as proteins, peptides, exosomes, hormones, neurotransmitters, metabolites and nucleic acids, are critical to disease diagnosis, progression monitoring, and management. While there are numerous approaches for analyzing biomarkers, the most validated and well-established is ELISA....