Friday, October 28, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
It is disconcerting that many of today’s infectious diseases target low resource settings (LRS) in developing-worlds whereas our most current technology is confined to wealthy, developed nations. One prominent molecular diagnostic technique is polymerase chain reaction (PCR). However, apart from the device being expensive, the procedure is sensitive and requires well trained professionals to perform the task. It was recently shown that electricity-free heaters have the capacity to incubate isothermal nucleic acid amplification assays with the use of simple exothermic chemical reactions and phase change materials. Having a diagnostics tool that does not require electricity or batteries to perform PCR would be a step forward in reducing mortality of infectious diseases in LRS. To explore our proposal we test the exothermic chemical reaction between sodium acetate trihydrate (SAT) and different ratios of H2O. A supersaturated solution of SAT releases heat and crystallizes with the slightest perturbation. Can crystallization of sodium acetate be tailored and controlled to the specification required for capture assays? The supersaturated solutions will undergo super-cooling in various initial temperature conditions and perturbed with a thermocouple tip. Measuring the final peak temperatures of the crystallized solutions at controlled conditions we can then compare the change in initial and final temperatures. Being able to understand the relationship between the initial and final temperature, we then hope to begin the process of using sodium acetate to provide the energy needed for diagnostic tools in developing countries that are inexpensive and easy to use.