Portable Reactor for Real-Time Nucleic Acid Amplification and Detection

• US 20080128597A1
• Filed: 04/25/2007
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of South Florida (State University System of Florida)
• Original Assignee: University of South Florida (State University System of Florida)
• Inventors: Fries, David, Smith, Matthew C., Steimle, George, Ivanov, Stanislav
• Granted Patent: US 7,705,339 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 250/222.1
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 21/645 Specially adapted constructive features of fluorimeters

Abstract

The present invention provides core technologies necessary for a portable, low cost LED-based handheld fluorometer. The fluorometer is based on a heater integrated within the walls of the reaction chamber, and an orthogonal geometry LED based light source to provide optical excitation. Power is supplied through either an internal power supply, and data is collected in real-time through standard serial interfaces of personal computers, which can also be used to provide power, or personal digital assistants. Thermal regulation is automatically maintained using temperature sensor feedback control. Such a handheld system can allow applications requiring temperature sensitive photometric measurements for real time analyte detection to be performed in the field.

Claims

1. A low thermal mass fluorometer, the fluorometer comprising:

a reaction chamber;

a heater integrally formed with the reaction chamber;

a reaction vessel suspended within the reaction chamber, the reaction vessel positioned to leave a space between the reaction vessel and the reaction chamber;

a light emitting diode positioned to supply fluorescence excitation to the reaction chamber, the light emitting diode positioned geometrically orthogonal to the reaction vessel; and

an photodetector positioned to detect fluorescence emission from the reaction chamber.

2. The fluorometer of claim 1, further comprising a control software module in circuit communication with the temperature feedback controller, the light emitting diode and the integrating photodetector.

3. The fluorometer of claim 1, wherein the reaction chamber is formed from a flexible printed circuit board substrate.

4. The fluorometer of claim 3 wherein the flexible printed circuit board substrate is a liquid crystal polymer printed circuit material.

5. The fluorometer of claim 4 wherein circuits for the heater, light emitting diode and photodetector are etched into the liquid crystal polymer material.

6. The fluorometer of claim 1, further comprising an external power supply.

7. The fluorometer of claim 1, further comprising an integrated power supply.

8. The fluorometer of claim 1, further comprising a serial communication module in circuit communication with the photodetector.

9. The fluorometer of claim 8, further comprising an output display in communication with the serial communication module.

10. The fluorometer of claim 1, wherein the photodetector is a 567 nm reflective green color sensor.

11. The fluorometer of claim 1, wherein the light emitting diode is a 470 nm blue light emitting diode.

12. The fluorometer of claim 1, wherein the resistive heater is a MEMS-based linear resistive temperature device.

13. The fluorometer of claim 12 wherein the heater comprises a plurality of connected, concentric traces formed in the exterior of the reaction chamber.

14. The fluorometer of claim 13 wherein the traces formed in the exterior of the reaction chamber are about 120 μ

m wide.

15. The fluorometer of claim 1 wherein the resistance of the heater is about ≧

5Ω

.

16. The fluorometer of claim 1 wherein the reaction vessel is a glass waveguide capillary.

17. The fluorometer of claim 16 wherein the end of the capillary adjacent the photodetector is formed into a semi-spherical ball lens.