Nucleic acid testing (NAT) is currently the most sensitive method available for identifying infectious pathogens. Nevertheless, NAT-based diagnoses developed to date mostly require sophisticated infrastructures, reagents, and skilled technicians. While readily available in reference laboratories, NATs such as PCR remain inaccessible in resource-limited settings. Although extensive efforts have been undertaken toward point-of-care (POC) molecular diagnosis, a fully validated ‘sample-in-answer-out’ NAT system has not developed due to significant challenges of portability, sample preparation, and throughput. In this talk, I will discuss several low-cost field-deployable NAT devices and systems developed in our lab in the past 8 years, especially for infectious diseases in resource-limiting areas. These NAT devices could be loaded with easily-obtainable raw samples such as finger-prick blood, making diagnostic testing faster and easier for identifying pathogens like Malaria, HIV and SARS-COV-2.
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