# Development of a Point-of-Care Volumetric Bar-Chart Chip for Drug Quantitation

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2020 · $161,984

## Abstract

Abstract
 Resubmission: Develop Point-of-Care Volumetric-Bar-Chart-Chip for Drug Quantitation
 This proposal is a resubmission of a three-year R01 (DA035868-01) renewal. During the
last grant period, we published 40 peer-reviewed papers and applied for 4 patents, with 17
publications and 2 patents directly resulted from this grant award support. We still have numerous
raw data and 4 pending publications from this grant. The original patent featured in the grant,
Volumetric-Bar-Chart-Chip (V-Chip) patent, was officially issued in 2015 (US9097710 B2) and
licensed to Etta Healthcare and Ovagen. Our lab chip system is also a winner of 2015 R&D 100
award.
 In the resubmission, we focus on further developing the quantitation capability and point-
of-care user friendliness of the V-Chip platform for drug quantitation. Key innovations and
changes we incorporated to address the reviewers' concerns include: 1. Improving the design of
the V-chip so that the device is more robust for quantitation and user-friendly in a point of care
setting. This includes modifying the on-chip meter bar to eliminate the need for separate
calibration, eliminating the need for manual pipetting by the integration of on-chip pumps, and
changing the manual glass etching process to computer-guided laser-based production. 2. Adding
more data on PtNP conjugation to prove the technical feasibility. 3. Changing the contact PI to
Dr. Ping Wang as the focus of the proposal shifts to clinical validation and end-user pilot testing.
We will assess clinical sensitivity, clinical specificity, intra- and inter-user variability in a clinical
environment (Hospital of University of Pennsylvania) with targeted end-users. These changes
should demonstrate the clinical value and robustness of our device.
 Current non-invasive (or minimal-invasive) point-of-care (POC) platforms to assist the
therapeutics for Substance Use Disorder (SUD) are facing challenges of non-quantitation,
inaccuracy, non-compatible with diverse biological specimens, long assay time, and
requirement for sophisticated instrument and/or expertise for readout.
 Here, we propose an Integrated Competitive Multiplexed Volumetric Bar Chart Chip (ICV-
Chip) to assay drug targets in urine, whole blood, and saliva. The ICV-Chip platform is
quantitative, sensitive, accurate, fast, portable, convenient and low cost. The ICV-Chip bioassay
is non/minimally invasive and able to assess the patients' adherence to their medical treatment
by the integration of an adherence marker Acetazolamide. The development of the ICV-Chip thus
overcomes most of the current technology limits and opens up the possibility of instrument-free
personalized assessment of drug abuse.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10111962
- **Project number:** 3R01DA035868-06S1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Lidong Qin
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $161,984
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2013-07-15 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10111962

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10111962, Development of a Point-of-Care Volumetric Bar-Chart Chip for Drug Quantitation (3R01DA035868-06S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10111962. Licensed CC0.

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