Dip Pen Lithography of oligonucleotides on flexible substrates for point-of-care malaria disease testing

The first step for prevention and treatment of diseases is the accurate diagnosis. However, proper diagnostic technologies are not available in developing countries due to the lack of reliable electrical power, refrigeration and trained personnel. For this reason, there is an urgent need of low cost, rapid assays not requiring any external support. By coupling such technologies to communication infrastructures, healthcare in areas without access to medical personnel would be possible. “Paper” like substrates are ideal for fabricating such devices since they are cheap, easy to degradate after use and compatible with most of existing printing technologies [1]. We had previously shown the poss…