The Development of a Low-Cost Incubator for Biosensor Application

Abstract

Extensive research has been conducted in the development of biosensors for the developing world in recent years. Despite the plethora of novel sensing systems and an ever increasing library of testable analytes, the implementation and use of biosensors as a commercial product has been limited thus far. This limitation is mainly economic, due to the high cost of construction of complex biosensors and short shelf lives. This research summarizes a step in the development of an ultra-low cost biosensor platform which will allow for a greatly increased flexibility in the application of biosensors throughout the developing world by allowing for complex systems to be simplified, satisfying the ASSURED criteria for an ideal biosensor. Demonstrated in this work is the creation, characterization and testing of an ultra-low cost incubator for the purposes of PCR, bacterial cell culturing and cell lysis as an initial example of the great promise of the development of this low-cost, versatile and reliable biosensor platform.