A new class of electrochemical lateral flow assay with ELISA level performance for detecting plant diseases in East Africa
File(s)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Cassava brown streak disease (CBSD) threatens food security for millions in East Africa, yet its control remains limited by the absence of field-deployable molecular diagnostics. Here we introduce ELLA (Electrochemical Lateral flow assay with Linked Analytics), a battery-free, smartphone-powered electrochemical lateral flow assay that delivers ELISA-grade protein detection directly in the field. ELLA integrates near-field communication, a single-chip potentiostat, metal-pin electrodes, and ferrocene-labelled nanoparticles into a fully disposable cassette, enabling quantitative immunoassays without optical instrumentation or centralized laboratory infrastructure. Validated across laboratory studies and extensive field trials in Tanzania, ELLA achieved 95% agreement with ELISA and 89% agreement with RT-qPCR, outperforming ELISA’s limit of detection while maintaining a material cost below US$1. By coupling molecular test results with cloud-linked analytics, we further trained DeepELLA, a smartphone-based image classification model that enables scalable surveillance from field-acquired leaf images. Together, these advances unify electrochemical sensing, digital connectivity, and AI-assisted interpretation, enabling a new class of portable, ELISA-level diagnostics for plant, environmental, and health monitoring in resource-limited regions.
Date Acceptance
2026-06-25
Citation
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
ISSN
0027-8424
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences
Journal / Book Title
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Copyright Statement
Copyright This paper is embargoed until publication. Once published the author’s accepted manuscript will be made available under a CC-BY License in accordance with Imperial’s Research Publications Open Access policy (www.imperial.ac.uk/oa-policy).
License URL
Publication Status
Accepted