Bilkent University
Mechanical Engineering Department
Start Date: November 2016
End Date: May 2019
Real-time Ploymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) is a technology which enbales the amplification of cDNA samples obtained from DNA and mRNA and the detection of the products in real time. RT-PCR has many application areas such as diagnosis of genetic disorders, patogen detection, oncologic studies, detection of genetically modified organisms, prenatal diagnosis
etc. The objective of this project is to develop a portable, integrated microfluidics based lab-on-a-chip (LOC) device for diagnostic, therapy, detection and monitoring. According to the World Heath Organization, 2 billion people had been HBV infected worldwide by 2008 and 350 million people had been having chronic infection. Moreover, it is predicted that every year approximately 600.000 people die because of acute or chronic results of Hepatit-B virus (HBV). An early dignosis of HBV infection reduces the death rate by 25%. The molecular diagnostic results of an HBV infected patient needs to be reliable. RT-PCR is a reliable method for diagnostic of HBV infection and is used as a gold-standard method in clinics. The proposed device will be capable of deciding copy number of HBV DNA in blood for diagnostic purpose. Although the hardware of the device will be for multiple use, the microfluidics chip where the biological analysis is performed will be disposable. Disposable chip will reduce the risk of infection.