Using wax printing techniques to achieve multiplexing in paper-based lateral flow devices

Abstract

With the recent emergence of the COVID-19 virus, the pandemic has affected the lives of millions of people and highlights the need for fast and accurate virus testing in order to further prevent the spread of this pandemic. Point of care testing has recently became one of the most popular diagnosis methods in clinical analysis due to its rapid test result times and low cost. One of the most widely used point of care technique is the paper-based lateral-flow assay, which is the focus of this thesis. One method to further reduce the cost of performing a paper-based lateral-flow test is the use of a Wax can be used to fabricate hydrophobic barriers on the nitrocellulose membrane of the lateral flow paper-based assay to create separate channels for different analytes to be detected simultaneously with the same amount of sample that was previously used to detect a single analyte. The multiplexing ability of the wax printed barriers helps greatly reduce the sample size and reagents needed to perform paper-based lateral-flow test. Here we show how we can apply wax printing techniques on paper-based lateral-flow assay to achieve multiplexing and further reduce the cost of operation.