Lactate Test Kit
Design
In order for the implementation of our design in system 4 in the real world, we developed a piece of hardware as a container for the testing strip. After thorough discussions, we decided to further improve the functions of the hardware and develop it into a testing kit, namely, the Lactate Test Kit. The test kit is divided into three cells: the testing strip cell, the urine collection cell, and the safety cell.
Testing strips are either paper or plastic strips used to screen for certain chemicals in biological or non-biological specimens. Generally, the strip has a chemical pad or reagents which will present detectable changes when coming in contact with the specimens. In our case, the testing strips are made up of filter paper and, with a recess on one end, are capable of gathering urine samples for the chromogenic reaction. The testing strips are placed inside the testing strip cell, which is on the left side of our Lactate Testing Kit. The urine collection cell, meanwhile, contains a specimen cup that can be taken out for sample collection. To ensure that the engineered bacteria would not be released into the environment, we also designed a safety cell to store used or wasted testing strips. Antibacterial substances are contained in this cell and can kill the engineered bacteria within a short time. Besides, we designed a dropper to take in urine samples and, to safely store our chromogenic reagent, β-Galactosidases, we developed a container as well.
Merits of our Lactate Test Kit can be concluded as follows:
|
The test kit was colored in accordance with the team logo |
|
The lid, shell, and film of the test cups are fully integrated and can prevent light from entering the kit |
|
The kit contains a safety cell that prevents the engineered bacteria from entering the environment |
|
The kit contains all that is needed for lactate screening |
Demonstration
manuscript
We built the hardware pattern via Blender and made an effort to present the model from different angles so that viewers and future users can have a better understanding of the structure of our test kit.
Since the hardware is designed for the testing strip in the fourth system, we decided to 3D print the test kit so that members of the Wet Lab group can understand the design and offer their ideas for its improvement. They provided valuable comments, especially on the design of our testing strip, which was greatly helpful.
3D print
