Plasma nanotextured polymeric lab-on-a-chip for highly efficient bacteria capture and lysis

Abstract

We describe the design, fabrication, and successful demonstration of a sample preparation module comprising bacteria cell capture and thermal lysis on-chip with potential applications in food sample pathogen analysis. Plasma nanotexturing of the polymeric substrate allows increase of the surface area of the chip and the antibody binding capacity. Three different anti-Salmonella antibodies were directly and covalently linked to plasma treated chips without any additional linker chemistry or other treatment. Then, the Ab-modified chips were tested for their capacity to bind bacteria in the concentration range of 10²–10⁸ cells per mL; the module exhibited 100% efficiency in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium bacteria capture for cell suspensions below 10⁵ cells per mL (10⁴ cells injected with a 100 μL sample volume) and efficiency higher than 50% for 10⁷ cells per mL. Moreover, thermal lysis achieved on-chip from as low as 10 captured cells was demonstrated and shown to compare well with off-chip lysis. Excellent selectivity (over 1 : 300) was obtained in a sample containing, in addition to S. Typhimurium and E. coli bacteria.