A Point-of-Care System for Quick Urinary Tract Infection Diagnostics (SQUID)

This is a point-of-care system integrated with microfluidic delivery sub-system, temperature control unit and DEP on-chip concentration module which can detect E.Coli at a concentration level of 105 CFU/ml.  A sandwiched immunoassay was developed on a micro-fabricated biosensor chip for UTI E.Coli detection.  The biosensor chip fabrication process and surface modification protocol were optimised, and the biosensor-based immunoassay was transferred onto the microfluidic platform.  Dielectrophoresis (DEP) technology was used on concentrated E.Coli, and this increased the local concentration of bacteria by more than 1000 folds, allowing for quicker and easier detection.

A Hand-held Biosensor System for Rapid and Accurate Diagnosis of Influenza

This project involved the development of a highly sensitive handheld SAW biosensor system for diagnosing influenza at the point-of-care.  The system is based on the LW biosensor chip developed by Dr Yao Kui’s team.  The patented technology was transformed from a laboratory setup into a market-compatible handheld system.  Apart from the LW biosensor chip production, a number of additional tasks had to be performed when considering a market-compatible overall system, such as (a) LW biosensor chip package design and development; (b) integration with fluidic channels; and (c) electronic circuit design for signal detection and analysis.

Centrifugal Microfluidic Immunoassay Device for Rapid Pathogen Detection

This project involved the development of a novel immunoassay device based on centrifugal microfluidics for rapid and cost-effective pathogen detection.  The device relies on centrifugal force from spinning platforms such as centrifuge machine or CD-ROM to drive fluid movement.  Various fluidic functions such as valving, decanting, calibration, mixing, metering, sample splitting, and separation, can be implemented on the platform.  The diagnostic assay can be performed in most clinical and research laboratories without the requirements of highly skilled personnel and expensive equipment.

Droplet Microfluidic Device for Molecular Diagnosis

Droplet-based molecular diagnosis is an emerging new medical technology. Standard diagnosis protocol includes droplet generation, reaction, and signal analysis. In most commercial systems, these steps must be performed separately, which reduce the convenience in usage and make the results prone to mistake.  This a microfluidic device overcomes the limits of most commercial products.  Through integration of several innovative designs, droplet generation and analysis can be achieved on a single chip.  A special process to mass-produce the chip using industrial methodologies was also developed to reduce the cost and facilitate the commercialisation of the final products.  With these inventions, the labour and cost of molecular diagnosis can be greatly reduced, thus allowing more people to  benefit from this new technology.

Microfluidics-Based Flexible Tactile Sensors for Robotic Arm Collision Detection

Artificial skin with microfluidics-based tactile sensors is embedded into robots. The skin will estimate contact force and enable the robot to handle both unintentional collisions in safe human-robot collaboration tasks as well as intentional touches where it is used as a human-machine interface. In addition, the artificial skin can be offered as a solution platform that can be upgraded to perform collision detection with minor modification on any robotic hardware.

Design and Prototyping Artificial Skin for TCM Tui Na Robot

This project aims to design and fabricate a flexible tactile sensor array and integrate the fabricated sensor array to a Tui Na robot palm for detecting bones and measuring muscle stiffness in patients.

Wearable TCM Pulse Analyser

This project aims to develop a wearable Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) pulse analyser enabled with artificial intelligence for self-monitoring of illnesses.  The device mimics a TCM physician palpating artery pulses on the wrist and analyses various pulse characteristics to provide a diagnosis both qualitatively and quantitatively.  The embedded artificial intelligence will also greatly improve diagnosis accuracy.  Sensitive, accurate, and compact microfluidic-based pressure sensors make the analyser small and potentially wearable.