Lab-on-chip for high-throughput fungicide screening: MAHT-FunSST
Fungicide screening is stuck in an innovation gap, which incurs staggering expenses and takes a long time to market.
Furthermore, resistance to fungicides is challenging, requiring sensitivity screening and recalled fungicides.
This project is completed now. If interested, feel free to contact us.
Lab-on-a-chip for fungicide screening: introduction
Fungicides have become an integral part of agriculture for efficient food production.
The loss of a fungicide through resistance is a problem that affects us all.
Recently, early blight (EB) (Alternaria spp.) appeared with increasing frequency in European potato fields and occurred in Africa, America, Asia, and Australia.
Several fungicides are sprayed to control the disease, and resistance against EB fungi has been reported.
Scientists study fungicide sensitivity on cellular, organismal, or field levels to understand fungicide distribution better and effectively manage the resistance.
Also, a baseline sensitivity should be established before new fungicides are launched. The conventional techniques to screen fungicides and to identify the resistance are time-consuming and laborious.
Lab-on-a-chip for fungicide screening: project description
To perform fungicide screening and baseline sensitivity testing, microfluidic lab-on-a-chip with multiplexed cell culture chambers can emerge as an efficient platform compared to conventional agar and high-density healthy plates.
Microfluidic lab-on-a-chip has been developed in many fields since they have numerous advantages compared to traditional screenings, such as low reagent consumption, manipulation of cell number and density, monitoring of a high spatial and temporal resolution, and observing the dynamic behavior of many cells. Furthermore, new insights into fungicide mode of action can be obtained.
Lab-on-a-chip creates a uniquely accurate method for observing the biological responses, providing a more comprehensive analysis that could ultimately revolutionize how fungicides are developed and how to control the development of fungicide resistance in fungi.
One of our primary objectives is to establish a simple microfluidic lab-on-a-chip to perform high-throughput (HT) fungicide screening studies into droplets.
Fungal spores will be encapsulated individually in droplets produced on chip, germinated and grown, and finally in contact with fungicides.
Elveflow OB1 pressure controller will allow precise control of the flow rates of each liquid and the controlled encapsulation of fungi and fungicides.
For more details, feel free to have a look at Sherish’s review on microfluidics for fungus identification!
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 MSCA-IF under grant agreement No 843162 (MAHT-FunSST).
Researcher
Dr. Sehrish IFTIKHAR
Research Associate
- PhD in Agriculture Plant Pathology (University of the Punjab, Pakistan)
- Master of Science in Agriculture Plant Pathology (University of the Punjab, Pakistan)
- Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Plant Pathology (University of the Punjab, Pakistan)
Areas of expertise:
Agricultural plant pathology, fungicide discovery and design, fungicide screening, fungicide resistance and sensitivity, molecular microbe-plant interaction
