Using SAW devices to explore cell-sorting and biosensing for the diagnosis of blood cell pathologies in point-of-care settings

Diagnostics at point-of-care is a rapidly developing field, which aims to bring laboratory tests to the patient’s bedside. This in turn obviates the time and cost of obtaining samples and moving them to laboratories. Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) devices are used in mobile phones, industrial equipment, and for sorting/sensing. However, their translation to point-of-care is slow – mostly due to bulky ancillary equipment like syringe pumps, signal-generators, and amplifiers. Thus, the development of an easy-to-use SAW chip for sorting and sensing, with portable actuators to diagnose blood cell pathologies in the point-of-care setting was explored in this thesis.