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FiberCell Systems
LavaAmp Launched Coast to Coast
Posted by Jim H on November 1, 2009
One reason I have been lame in the blogging department is that I have been working on the LavaAmp™ project. After SciFoo camp last year, I was asked by Joseph Jackson and Guido Nuñez-Mujica if I could help them licences this device from Texas A&M.
Guido is from Venezuela and is most interested in infectious disease testng in 3rd world, remote applications. This is a talk Guido gave at Google shortly before SciFoo camp:
After nearly a year of negotiating with the TAMU tech transfer office (some day I’ll blog about University Tech Transfer offices stifling Innovation and commercialization) in the past 6 weeks we recruited Rob Carlson and Rik Wehbring from Biodesic and a the engineering prototype is built.
A more technical description from Robs blog post:
“The LavaAmp is based on the convective PCR thermocycler demonstrated by Agrawal et al, which has been licensed from Texas A&M University to Gahaga. Under contract from Gahaga, Biodesic reduced the material costs and power consumption of the device. We started by switching from the aluminum block heaters in the original device (expensive) to thin film heaters printed on plastic. A photo of the engineering prototype is below (inset shows a cell phone for scale). PCR reagents, as in the original demonstration, are contained in a PFTE loop slid over the heater core. Only one loop is shown for demonstration purposes, though clearly the capacity is much larger.”
So we’re off and running. Joseph is out at BilPil in San Diego this weekend with the device and hoping to get a little mention in at iGEM Jamboree in Boston, although it’s hard to be in two places at once.
A bit more from Synthesis: ”The existing prototype has three independently controllable heating zones that can reach 100C. The device can be powered either by a USB connection or an AC adapter (or batteries, if desired). The USB connection is primarily used for power, but is also used to program the temperature setpoints for each zone. The design is intended to accommodate additional measurement capability such as real-time fluorescence monitoring.
We searched hard for the right materials to form the heaters and thin film conductive inks are a definite win. They heat very quickly and have almost zero thermal mass. The prototype, for example, uses approximately 2W whereas the battery-operated device in the original publication used around 6W.
What we have produced is an engineering prototype to demonstrate materials and controls — the form factor will certainly be different in production. It may look something like a soda can, though I think we could probably fit the whole thing inside a 100ml centrifuge tube.”
And Attila over at PIMM also beat me to the blog punch.
I need to put together the press release and finish plans for BioBeers on Friday, put more marketing material in our Business Plan and write up a new proposal for amniotic tissue skin grafts this morning. Gaining momentum…..
