IMAGING SYSTEM FOR PAPER MICROFLUIDS

The background of the project is from a medical research where the detection
of EBV(Epstein Barr Virus) delegates the early stages of possible cause for
Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma. The technique used to detect the activity level of the
virus in the human tissue is called Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification. The
technique basically consists of heating up the tissue marked with dye and added with
calcein which will then be heated to a temperature of 60 degree celcius. Under blue
light, the sample will glow green in colour indicating the activity level of the virus.
The brighter the intensity of the glow, the higher the activity of the virus in a
particular sample. The project proposes to build a prototype that aims to reduce
human involvement and run the tests autonomously to show the activity level of the
virus. In this project, the sample is replaced with a green LED and the heating pad
will be replaced with a thermoelectric peltier. The prototype is programmed to move
and stop over the LED, and start reading the light intesity of the LED, only after the
sample is at a certain temperature preferably 60 degrees celcius. The data read will
then be saved and plotted in a graph and the pattern of the graph will be observed.