Integrating printed microfluidics with silicon photomultipliers for miniaturised and highly sensitive ATP bioluminescence detection

Bioluminescence has been widely used for important biosensing applications such as the measurement of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the energy unit in biological systems and an indicator of vital processes. The current technology for detection is mainly based on large equipment such as readers and imaging systems, which require intensive and time-consuming procedures. A miniaturised bioluminescence sensing system, which would allow sensitive and continuous monitoring of ATP, with an integrated and low-cost disposable microfluidic chamber for handling of biological samples, is highly desirable. Here, we report the design, fabrication and testing of 3D printed microfluidics chips coupled with silicon photomultipliers (SiPMs) for high sensitive real-time ATP detection. The 3D microfluidic chip reduces reactant consumption and facilitates solution delivery close to the SiPM to increase the detection efficiency. Our system detects ATP with a limit of detection (LoD) of 8 nM and an analytical dynamic range between 15 nM and 1 µM, showing a stability error of 3%, and a reproducibility error below of 20%. We demonstrate the dynamic monitoring of ATP in a continuous-flow system exhibiting a fast response time, ~4 s, and a full recovery to the baseline level within 17 s. Moreover, the SiPM-based bioluminescence sensing system shows a similar analytical dynamic range for ATP detection to that of a full-size PerkinElmer laboratory luminescence reader.