Radosław Kwapiszewski

Lab-on-a-Chip as a tool for laboratory diagnostics of lysosomal storage disorders

Radosław Kwapiszewski, WUT ,
Supervisors: prof. Zbigniew Brzózka (WUT), prof. Renata Bilewicz (UW)

Microfluidics and biosensors for life sciences and chemistry are current fields of interests of many scientists worldwide. These approaches have emerged for improving performance and functionality of biochemical and medical analysis. Apart from low reagents consumption, short reaction time, versatility, possibility of automation, continuous monitoring and stimulation of each step of the procedure, the use of miniaturized microdevices in progressive clinical medicine (point of care systems, POCS) affects the patients’ comfort.
In this work, an integrated microfluidic system for biochemical diagnostics of lysosomal storage disorders is presented. The polymeric microsystem consists of a zone for hydrodynamic focusing of cell suspension, a mixing microchannel, and an optical detection module. The system was used for determination of the activity of enzymes deficient in Fabry and Gaucher diseases. A principle of the determination of activities of the enzymes was fluorometric measurement of a protonated form of the product (4-methylumbelliferone) released in the enzymatic reactions. The concentration of released product was determined against a 4-methylumbelliferone standard curve. The curve of advancement of the enzymatic reaction performed in the presented microsystem was estimated for different reaction times obtained by the change of reagents’ flow rates maintained in the constant ratio.
On the contrary to currently used protocols of determination of lysosomal enzymes’ activities, the microdevice enables significant reduction of the time of analysis, from hours to a few minutes. Moreover, the experimental set enables to avoid termination of enzymatic reaction and sample dilution, what increases sensitivity of the developed method. Due to easy fabrication steps and their low cost, the system seems to be a prospective tool for a point-of-care approach.

Mrs. Chairwoman - prof. Elżbieta Malinowska

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