Abstract
We report a smartphone-based device and associated imaging-processing algorithm to maximize the sensitivity of standard smartphone cameras, that can detect the presence of single-digit pW of radiant flux intensity. The proposed hardware and software, called bioluminescent-based analyte quantitation by smartphone (BAQS), provides an opportunity for onsite analysis and quantitation of luminescent signals from biological and non-biological sensing elements which emit photons in response to an analyte. A simple cradle that houses the smartphone, sample tube, and collection lens supports the measuring platform, while noise reduction by ensemble averaging simultaneously lowers the background and enhances the signal from emitted photons. Five different types of smartphones, both Android and iOS devices, were tested, and the top two candidates were used to evaluate luminescence from the bioluminescent reporter Pseudomonas fluorescens M3A. The best results were achieved by OnePlus One (android), which was able to detect luminescence from ~106 CFU/mL of the bio-reporter, which corresponds to ~107 photons/s with 180 seconds of integration time.
Highlights
Luminescence based detection methods have been used in biology, chemistry, and the medical field due to their unique characteristic of self-photon generation from chemical energy
Since many bioluminescence applications report their work in terms of photon counts per second[20], we adopt this quantity as cps = Pinλ hc where h c, and λis the Plank constant, the speed of light, and wavelength respectively
To estimate the theoretical signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the proposed measurement modality, SNR models were calculated for three detectors (silicon photodiode (PD), avalanche photodiode (APD), and photomultiplier tube (PMT)) when incident optical power ranges from 1 μW to 1 fW
Summary
Luminescence based detection methods have been used in biology, chemistry, and the medical field due to their unique characteristic of self-photon generation from chemical energy Among these methods, bioluminescence is extremely attractive as the genetics and biochemistry are known for many luminescent organisms. Luminescence detection by mobile phones include a bio-luminescence assay to detect bile acid and chemo-luminescence assays for cholesterol detection[15], lactate in oral fluid[16], and salivary cortisol level[17] Most of these chemo- and bioluminescence based assays utilize the lateral flow strip as their test substrate and report only relative comparisons of light intensities for the detection limit of the analyte concentration. As a proof of concept, we used bioluminescent reporter bacteria that emits photons at 490 nm to determine the detection limits of light intensity measurements from different smartphones
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