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Disease Detection using Paper-based Microfluidic Device
From flow in microchannels to semi-quantitative and quantative detection of diseases by simple paper-based microfluidic devices
Kalpita Nath
PMRF Research Scholar
I am Kalpita Nath, a PMRF Research Scholar from the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, actively working in the domain of disease detection by paper based microfluidic device and point-of-care diagnostics under the supervision of Prof. Sunando Dasgupta. I am interested in early diagnosis of various human disorders that otherwise remains undiagnosed as the current diagnosis techniques followed by medical practitioners are based of behavioral analysis. I am trying to develop low cost diagnostic tools that would be easy to handle and would not need any highly trained professionals for operating as most of the diagnostic methods followed now a days require highly complicated instrumentation that requires extremely trained individuals to operate and is even time consuming!!!
I have completed my B. Tech in Chemical Engineering department of NIT Agartala and my M. Tech in Chemical Engineering department of IIT ISM Dhanbad where I worked on surface modification of cellulose cloth. That also motivated me to fabricate a anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal cloth for SARS-CoV-2 destruction.
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Research Interests
Paper microfluidics is one of the most rapidly evolving technology and has undergone immense development in field of healthcare, environmental investigation, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, etc. There are numerous advantages to Paper-based microfluidic devices such as rapid, easy-to-use, compatible with biological, organic and inorganic entities, chemical inertness, robustness, economical, environment-friendly and easy disposal. Paper microfluidic-based devices have become a minent alternative for existing POC technologies.
Till now many diseases are qualitatively diagnosed by analyzing the symptoms related to the patients but those symptoms are highly unspecific and often lead to misdiagnosis and even many diseases gets undiagnosed which leads to persistence of the diseases in the lives of the patients. Thus, these simple and easy-to-make microfluidic paper based devices provides quantitative or semi-quantitative analysis for the initial screening of the patients.
Publications
K. Nath, "Antimicrobial silver nanoparticle-photodeposited fabrics for SARS-CoV-2 destruction", Accepted, Colloid and Interface Science Communications, Volume: 45, Page: 100542 (2021)