Rapid, sensitive, and accessible pathogen diagnostics are urgently needed to address the global health burden of infectious diseases and the growing threat of antimicrobial resistance. Conventional methods, such as culture-based assays and PCR, remain limited by long turnaround times, sophisticated instrumentation, and restricted multiplexing capabilities, which make them impractical for deployment in resource-limited or point-of-care (POC) settings.
This dissertation presents the development of integrated microfluidic platforms coupled with biochemical assays based on recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) and CRISPR/Cas12a detection for rapid, portable, and instrument-free diagnostics. A series of microdevices were engineered to overcome limitations in fluid transport, sample processing, and assay integration. First, a Rotation-Chip was designed as a low-cost, reusable platform that enables high-throughput multiplexing through manual fluid transfer. Leveraging superhydrophobic...