Team:HKIS/Hardware

Sodium Acetate Incubator

Our team successfully designed a functioning incubation device for incubating reactions at 37*C to 39*C.

As one of our contributions, we developed and 3D-printed a sodium acetate-based incubator. This incubator is portable, relatively small in size, and is an excellent insulator. Not only that, our heat block is entirely reusable and environmentally friendly. Due to our system's wide range of potential applications, we wanted to develop an incubating system that would insulate at our target reaction temperature for an extended period.

When developing our incubator, we had not only to consider insulation but also ease of use. The principle of ease of use is why activation of our incubator only requires a click of a trigger and a small slide to close. The focus of being a decent insulator is why the central chamber of our incubator possesses relatively thick walls.

The heating portion of the incubator is a heat pack filled with sodium acetate solution and thus requires no electricity or external energy sources. The heat reaction is started by snapping a button inside the gel package and is entirely reusable. Once the reaction begins, a user has to place it inside the incubator and close the lid. With spaces for several tubes, this incubator can be used to run several tests at once. Considering our target audience could include stall owners at Hong Kong’s wet markets, where the temperature largely fluctuates in the outdoor environment, or a restaurant that maintains cooler indoor temperatures, we developed this system to take up very little space and maintain stable temperatures.

The graph demonstrates that our kit can maintain a stable temperature within the 37 to 39*C temperature range for a whole 33 minutes, more than enough for reaction. This demonstrates that the incubator can sustain the optimal temperature range for the entire duration of the RPA and CRISPR Cas12a reaction duration, which proves that our incubator functions as intended.

Sources

"SOLIDWORKS 2021 Hardware Recommendations." The Javelin Blog, 2020, https://www.javelin-tech.com/blog/2020/10/solidworks-2021-hardware-recommendations/.