How does the AccordEdge System Single Run avoid cross-contamination in non-laboratory environments like shrimp farms?
Publish Time: 2025-12-22
In aquaculture, especially in high-density intensive shrimp farms, disease outbreaks are often characterized by sudden onset, rapid spread, and high mortality rates. Traditional pathogen detection relies on central laboratory testing, which is time-consuming, costly, and unsuitable for meeting the needs of early detection and early intervention. The AccordEdge System Single Run, a fully automated molecular diagnostic platform designed for field use, is specifically designed for non-professional environments such as doctor's offices, community hospitals, quarantine stations, and even shrimp farms. One of its core advantages is its fully enclosed microfluidic technology, which effectively eliminates the risk of cross-contamination during a single run, ensuring accurate and reliable test results.
The core of the AccordEdge System Single Run lies in its disposable, fully enclosed thin-film microfluidic chip. This chip integrates the entire process—cell lysis, nucleic acid purification, template elution, PCR amplification, and optical detection—into a sealed plastic film chamber. After the sample is injected through the inlet, the entire reaction process takes place in a completely closed environment, requiring no opening of the cap, pipetting, or manual intervention. This "sample in—result out" closed design fundamentally cuts off the contact path between the sample and the external environment, avoiding interference from operators, airborne particles, aerosols, or tabletop contaminants. Especially in dusty, humid, and biologically complex environments like shrimp farms, the sealed chip acts as a miniature clean laboratory, ensuring the purity of the molecular reaction.
2. Single Run, Independent Channel: Eliminating Sample Cross-Contamination
The AccordEdge System Single Run supports parallel processing of 1–4 samples, but each sample is assigned an independent microfluidic channel and reaction chamber, with no liquid or gas communication between them. Even when simultaneously testing shrimp samples from different ponds, there is no risk of sample cross-contamination. Furthermore, the system employs a "use-and-discard" strategy—each test uses a brand-new chip, with no reusable flow paths or tubing, completely eliminating the possibility of false positives caused by residues from previous runs. This dual isolation mechanism of "disposable + independent channel" is far superior to traditional open extraction instruments or semi-automatic PCR platforms, making it particularly suitable for the practical needs of aquaculture farms that require frequent testing of multiple suspected lesions.
3. Automated Operation: Eliminating Contamination Introduced by Human Operation
In non-laboratory environments, operators often lack molecular biology training, and manual steps such as sample addition, opening caps, and changing pipette tips can easily introduce exogenous DNA or cause aerosol diffusion. The AccordEdge System Single Run automates all steps: users only need to inject shrimp tissue homogenate or crude extract into the designated inlet of the chip, place it in the instrument, and start the fully automated operation. There is no need to open the instrument door, change consumables, or touch reagents throughout the process. This extremely simplified operation significantly reduces the probability of contamination due to human error, enabling aquaculture technicians, veterinarians, and even farmers themselves to safely and accurately perform high-sensitivity molecular detection.
4. Environmentally Adaptable Design: Addressing the Harsh Conditions of Shrimp Farms
Shrimp farms are often located in high-temperature, high-humidity, salt spray, or dusty environments, where traditional precision instruments are susceptible to corrosion or malfunction. The AccordEdge System Single Run is compact and robust, exhibiting tolerance to temperature and humidity fluctuations, and requires no complex external auxiliary equipment. Its enclosed chip itself possesses excellent chemical stability, compatible with crude sample matrices containing salt and protein, reducing pretreatment steps—a stage prone to cross-contamination. By simplifying the process, enhancing encapsulation, and improving robustness, the system maintains high detection specificity even in suboptimal environments.
The AccordEdge System Single Run, through its fully enclosed microfluidic chip, independent sample channels, fully automated operation, and environmentally adaptable design, constructs a robust anti-contamination barrier in the typical non-laboratory setting of shrimp farms. It not only brings the accuracy of molecular diagnostics to the front lines but also provides solid technical support for rapid screening, precise medication, and biosecurity control in aquatic diseases with its "zero cross-contamination" reliability.
