IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q3 2021 - 88

Antigen Tests
Lacewing
PCR Instruments
Target
Cost
Speed
Active Infection
+ <£10/Test
Accessibility
Sensitivity and Specificity
Quantification
Sync
Multiplex Panel
Severity Prediction
Usability
+ Rapid (15-20 mins)
+ Easy to Use
- Low to High
- Qualitative
- User
- Limited Panel
- No
+ Handheld
Active Infection
+ <£10/Test
+ Rapid (<30 mins)
+ Easy to Use
+ High
+ Quantitative
+ Auto
+ Panel of Markers
+ Yes
+ Handheld
Active Infection
+ £30-80/Test
- Slow (2 h)
+ Requires Lab Experts
+ High
+ Quantitative
- User
+ Panel of Markers
+ Yes
- Bench
Figure 7. Performance of Lacewing against state-of-the-art antigen and nucleic acid based tests.
several orders of magnitude higher than molecular tests
i.e. they are prone to false negatives in the early days of
the infection. Companies such as LumiraDx have developed
a benchtop device to provide results without the
need for visual interpretation, at the expense of portability.
Lacewing is the first handheld molecular platform able
to perform the test in under 15 minutes without the need
for a lab.
V. ProtonDx
Along with developing and validating Lacewing as
a COVID-19 molecular test, we have initiated the process
of spinning out from Imperial College London as
ProtonDx Ltd, to support scale-up of testing capabilities
and commercialization of the platform. We are currently
running clinical trials at Imperial NHS Trust in
London, UK, during which we are testing the platform
with 400 swab samples. We are setting up a supply
chain to scale up the production of our handheld device
and test cartridges.
Our first stage of deployment will see us implement
Lacewing within emergency services and maternity
wards in hospitals. We will deploy in pharmacies and
health services to provide a touchpoint for testing in the
community as an alternative to home testing. Lastly, we
will provide testing in schools and workplaces, where
batch testing can be used to guarantee an infection-free
zone and contain the virus.
In a close future, ProtonDx will bring diagnostics of
COVID-19 to the palm of your hand, finally allowing to
diagnose patients at the time and point where those first
symptoms occur.
References
[1] J. Rodriguez-Manzano, P. Y. Chia, T. W. Yeo, A. Holmes, P. Georgiou,
and S. Yacoub, " Improving dengue diagnostics and management
through innovative technology, " Curr. Infect. Dis. Rep., vol. 20, no. 8, p.
25, June 2018. doi: 10.1007/s11908-018-0633-x.
[2] L. S. Yu et al., " Rapid detection of azole-resistant aspergillus fumigatus
in clinical and environmental isolates by use of a lab-on-a-chip diagnostic
system, " J. Clin. Microbiol., vol. 58, no. 11, Nov. 2020. doi: 10.1128/
JCM.00843-20.
[3] K. Malpartida-Cardenas et al., " Quantitative and rapid Plasmodium
falciparum malaria diagnosis and artemisinin-resistance detection using
a CMOS Lab-on-Chip platform, " Biosens. Bioelectron., vol. 145, Dec.
2019. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2019.111678.
[4] N. Moser, J. Rodriguez-Manzano, T. S. Lande, and P. Georgiou, " A scalable
ISFET sensing and memory array with sensor auto-calibration for
on-chip real-time DNA detection, " IEEE Trans. Biomed. Circuits Syst., vol.
12, no. 2, pp. 390-401, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://ieeexplore.ieee
.org/abstract/document/8278828/. doi: 10.1109/TBCAS.2017.2789161.
[5] N. Moser, T. S. Lande, C. Toumazou, and P. Georgiou, " ISFETs in
CMOS and emergent trends in instrumentation: A review, " IEEE Sens.
J., vol. 16, no. 17, pp. 6496-6514, Sept. 2016. [Online]. Available: https://
ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7501581/. doi: 10.1109/JSEN.2016.
2585920.
[6] J. Rodriguez-Manzano et al., " Rapid detection of mobilized colistin
resistance using a nucleic acid based lab-on-a-chip diagnostic system, "
Sci. Rep., vol. 10, no. 1, Dec. 2020. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-64612-1.
88
IEEE CIRCUITS AND SYSTEMS MAGAZINE
THIRD QUARTER 2021

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IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine - Q3 2021

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