Automated microbial detection and quantification

1. A method for automated microbial detection, comprising:

collecting air particles into a solid-state sampler, the air particles including microbes;

charging the air particles using a plasma field generated by propulsion electrodes;

focusing the charged air particles toward a sample well of a microfluidic testing cartridge;

tagging the charged air particles with a fluorescence marker;

detecting a quantity of the microbes using a fluorescence detector.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting a signal of the fluorescence detector to a remote storage and analysis device;

discarding the microfluidic testing cartridge; and

loading an unused microfluidic testing cartridge.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the microbes comprise at least one of bacteria, archaea, fungi, viruses, or a combination thereof.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the solid-state sampler is an electro-kinetic ion focuser.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of tagging the charged air particles comprises:

puncturing a liquid cartridge comprising cell-lysis chemicals with an impaling structure embedded in the microfluidic testing cartridge releasing the cell-lysis chemicals;

flowing the released cell-lysis chemicals into the sample well;

mixing the flowed cell-lysis chemicals with the charged air particles, forming a blend;

flowing the blend into a mixing chamber of the microfluidic testing cartridge to re-suspend the charged particles in the cell-lysis chemicals; and

distributing the blend into at least one assay chamber of the microfluidic testing cartridge.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the step of distributing the blend into at least one assay chamber comprises:

activating pre-existing DNA polymerase, genotype-specific DNA oligomer primers, and fluorescent marker in each assay chamber;

heating each assay chamber to enable isothermal DNA amplification; and

binding the amplified DNA with the fluorescent marker.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the DNA polymerase is a Phi29 rolling circle DNA polymerase.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein the cell-lysis chemicals comprise a lysis buffer, cellular lysate, and at least one detergent.

9. A method of tagging charged particles comprising:

puncturing a liquid cartridge comprising cell-lysis chemicals with an impaling structure to release the cell-lysis chemicals;

mixing the released cell-lysis chemicals with charged air particles including microbes to form a blend;

contacting, in an assay chamber, the blend with a mixture preexisting in the assay chamber, the mixture comprising DNA polymerase, genotype-specific DNA oligomer primers, and fluorescent marker to form a system;

heating the system to enable isothermal DNA amplification; and

binding the amplified DNA with the fluorescent marker,

wherein the charged particles are suspended in the cell-lysis chemicals.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the DNA polymerase is a Phi29 rolling circle DNA polymerase.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the cell-lysis chemicals comprise a lysis buffer, cellular lysate, and at least one detergent.