Electrochemical lateral flow assay with ELISA-level performance for detecting plant diseases in East Africa
- José M. R. Flauzino
- Abdulkadir Sanli
- Rudolph R. Shirima
- Yuanjun Cai
- Tinghao Hu
- Leyang Li
- Taliya Weinstein
- Hong Seok Lee
- Tayeb Tadlaoui
- Selin Olenik
- Abdülkadir Gümüşçü
- Laura Gonzalez-Macia
- George Mahuku
- James Legg
- Anthony E. G. Cass
- Firat Güder
2026-07-20
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 enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)-grade protein detection directly in the field. ELLA integrates near-field communication, a single-chip potentiostat, metal-pin electrodes, and ferrocene-labeled 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 portable, ELISA-level diagnostics for plant, environmental, and health monitoring in resource-limited regions.