A self-priming digital microfluidic chip for single-cell antibiotic susceptibility testing

Abstract

The escalating threat of bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a critical challenge to global health, and in response, antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) emerges as a vital tool for combating this issue. This study introduces an innovative self-priming digital microfluidic chip designed for rapid AST at the single-cell level, featuring an array of 1,824 chambers with integrated microvalves that facilitate effortless self-priming sample loading, eliminating the need for cumbersome external pumps. This platform has a merit of customizable pre-coating capability, allowing users to apply various antibiotics at different concentrations for multiple on-chip ASTs and streamlining the determination of minimal inhibitory concentrations (MIC) in a straightforward manner. Our experiments with Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) demonstrated that the chip not only accurately assessed antibiotic susceptibility but also achieved results in just six hours, significantly shorter than traditional broth dilution methods. This self-priming microfluidic chip represents a leap forward in rapid AST, showcasing enhanced customization and efficiency for point-of-care testing (POCT) applications, and its potential to tackle multi-drug resistant bacterial strains makes it a promising solution for modern clinical diagnostics.