Mosaic developed a benchtop instrument to conduct multiplexed realtime colorimetric nucleic acid amplification assays. The instrument provides isothermal incubation of a LAMP reaction (loop-mediated isothermal amplification). Simultaneously, it measures optical absorbance changes across 48 specimens.
Key aspects of the project included:
- Optical specimen block assembly design based around a Peltier thermoelectric module
- Motorized lid mechanism design
- Custom mixed-signal PCBA design
- Embedded controller based around the Toradex Apalis iMX6 system-on-module running Torizon Linux
- Firmware developed in C++/Qt with a touchscreen UI built in QML
- Over-the-air updates and remote monitoring across entire fleet of instruments
- Backend database development and web UI for data visualization
- Finite element modeling of thermal performance
- REST API for automation control
- Experimental bench characterization of thermal and optical performance
- Temperature and optical calibration standards and automated calibration routine
- Design for assembly, test, and service
- Full design outputs documentation package
- Pilot assembly
