Team:Grenoble-Alpes/Hardware
Hardware
It was at Amont à Aussoi that we had met that night to sleep by the fireside. Credits: Estelle Vincent
What if your Cell phone became a portable lab.
What if you could use your cell phone as a laboratory ? It might sound weird and difficult, but using 3D printing technique, basic electronics components and programming, your phone may become a very efficient tool. This is what we aimed to do with SnapLab, our portable kit that detects cholerae. SnapLab is the combination of a user-friendly application (lien page app) with a 3D printed device, in which smartly designed plasmids are used to detect particular DNA sequences (lien part bio).
SnapLab is the result of the collaboration between biology and engineering students. We designed an all-in-one kit, which integrates own-made lab instruments. Not only a measurement tool, SnapLab is also able to complete the entire analysis. After extracting the DNA sequence of interest from feces, the plasmid that we designed hybridizes with this particular DNA sequence. The plasmid is then internalised by the bacteria through a process of bacterial transformation, that once again occurs within the kit. Thus, bacteria are able to emit fluorescence that the smartphone captures by taking a photograph. All these steps are made possible by the 3D printed kit and the Arduino card connected to the smartphone.
Building the 3D structure
