High-throughput, on-chip bacterial isolation and detection for rapid urinary tract infection diagnostics
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | Lunds universitet - Biomedicinsk teknik, avd f Biomedicinsk teknik |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 1 000 000 |
| Project duration | November 2025 - November 2026 |
| Status | Ongoing |
| Venture | Deepened international collaborations |
| Call | Deepened collaboration with USA, UK and Singapore within Health and Life Science |
Purpose and goal
This project aims to develop a novel platform for high-throughput, on-chip bacterial isolation and detection from urine samples. Current diagnostic procedures for urinary tract infections (UTI) rely on centrifugation and bacterial culture, which take at least 48 hours before results are available. This delay leads to unnecessary use of broad-spectrum antibiotics and poses risks in severe cases such as sepsis or meningitis. There is an urgent need for faster and more precise diagnostic platforms.
Expected effects and result
The proposed system is expected to significantly reduce the time required for diagnosing UTIs, which currently relies on centrifugation and bacterial culture. High-throughput isolation of bacteria from urine samples will be achieved using acoustofluidics, a technique that employs ultrasound to manipulate micro- and nanoscale particles within microfluidic channels. The follow-up detection will be undertaken by using a CMOS-based ion-sensitive field effect transistor sensing array.
Planned approach and implementation
The fabrication and testing of the acoustofluidic devices for high-throughput bacteria isolation will be performed at Lund University, while the CMOS-based electronic sensing platform for bacteria metabolic response detection will be developed at University of Glasgow. The two developed devices will be brought together to demonstrate an integrated high-throughput diagnostic workflow. Synthetic urine samples containing both epithelial cells and E. coli will be used to validate the feasibility.