Fuelium has received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to demonstrate heating capabilities for low-cost, point-of-need molecular testing on paper, all powered by disposable paper batteries.

Fuelium implements paper-based eco-batteries that are liquid activated. In the case of diagnostic applications, this liquid can be the same sample to be analyzed or any buffer used in the assay. Fuelium has previously shown how these batteries can be integrated in a disposable diagnostic device to enable different functionalities to improve the assay performance and compliance including assay time control, heating, digital reading and display, wireless data communication.

In this proof-of-concept grant, Fuelium will implement self-powered heating modules for thermal lysis and isothermal amplification on paper for the next generation of point-of-care molecular assays. The development, integration and validation of these two modules will be done in collaboration with the SPEED research group at the Institute of Microelectronics of Barcelona IMB-CNM from CSIC, and Pragmatic Diagnostics, which are sub-awardees of this grant.