Development of a pumpless acoustofluidic device for rapid food pathogen detection

Mixing, homogenization, separation, and filtration are crucial processes in miniaturized analytical systems employed for in-vitro biological, environmental, and food analysis. However, in microfluidic systems achieving homogenization becomes more challenging due to the laminar flow conditions, which lack the turbulent flows typically used for mixing in traditional analytical systems. Here, we introduce an acoustofluidic platform that leverages an acoustic transducer to generate microvortex streaming, enabling effective homogenizing of food samples. To reduce reliance on external equipment, tubing, and pump, which is desirable for Point-of-Need testing, our pumpless platform employs a hydrophilic yarn capable of continuous wicking for sample perfusion. Following the homogenization process, the platform incorporates an array of micropillars for filtering out large particles from the samples. Additionally, the porous structure of the yarn provides a secondary screening mechanism. The resulting system is compact, and reliable, and was successfully applied to the detection of Escherichia coli (E. coli) in two different types of berries using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR). The platform demonstrated a detection limit of 5 CFU g⁻¹, showcasing its effectiveness in rapid and sensitive pathogen detection.