Abstract
Fungal infections can lead to severe clinical outcomes such as multiple organ failure and septic shock. Rapid detection of fungal infections allows clinicians to treat patients in a timely manner and improves clinical outcomes. Conventional detection methods include blood culture followed by plate culture and polymerase chain reaction. These methods are time-consuming and require expensive equipment, hence, they are not suitable for point-of-care and clinical settings. There is an unmet need to develop a rapid and inexpensive detection method for fungal infections such as candidemia. We developed an innovative immuno-based microfluidic device that can rapidly detect and capture Candida albicans from phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and human whole blood. Our microchip technology showed an efficient capture of C. albicans in PBS with an efficiency of 61-78% at various concentrations ranging from 10 to 105 colony-forming units per milliliter (cfu/mL). The presented microfluidic technology will be useful to screen for various pathogens at the point-of-care and clinical settings.