Self-powered microchips for rapid diagnosis and severity determination of urinary tract infections

Children presenting a fever without known sources are usually checked for bacterial urinary tract infection (UTI) which, in its more complicated forms, can result in permanent kidney damage. The gold standard conventional tests to diagnose complicated urinary tract infections are urine culture and kidney imaging with a radioactive tracer. However, these tests are lengthy (urine culture can take up to 48 hours to provide results) and expensive. Our aim is to develop self-powered, portable, and disposable microchips that directly detect bacterial pathogens in urine and measure blood protein biomarkers of kidney damage. Such microchips would allow rapid, sensitive, inexpensive, and minimally-invasive diagnosis of UTI as well as determination of infection severity. In addition, the developed microchips will provide immediate and high-quality diagnosis to guide clinical decisions and treatments thereby improving Canadian healthcare. TO BE CONt’D

Faculty Supervisor:

David Juncker

Student:

Ayokunle Olanrewaju

Partner:

Sensoreal Inc.

Discipline:

Engineering - biomedical

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

Program: