A smartphone-based on-site nucleic acid testing platform at point-of-care settings

We developed a smartphone-based on-site nucleic acid testing (NAT) platform that can image and analyze lateral flow nucleic acid assays at point-of-care settings. An inexpensive add-on was devised to run lateral flow assays while providing homogeneous ambient light for imaging. In addition, an Android app with a user-friendly interface was developed for the result analysis and management. Linear color calibration is implemented inside the app to minimize the colorimetric reaction difference between smartphones. A relationship function between nucleic acid concentration and colorimetric reaction was established and evaluated by leave-one-out cross validation. The predicted concentration and true concentration showed a good agreement with an R-squared value of 0.96. This smartphone-based NAT platform can be used to diagnose infectious diseases and monitor disease progression, and assess treatment efficacy, especially for resource-limited settings.