Point-of-care (POC) biosensors
Around the world, millions of people suffer and die from cancer in addition to other diseases such as cardiovascular disease, tuberculosis, diabetes, and malaria. As the search for effective treatment of these diseases continues, early detection and the ability to closely monitor the status of the disease is one of the most important tools for medical professionals seeking to help diseased patients. For diseases such as breast, cervical, prostate, and colorectal cancer, research has shown five year survival rates upward of 90% when the disease is detected early and treatment begins when the disease is in a localized stage.
The costs due to diseases such as cancer are also very significant. The combined economic impact including both direct treatment expenditures and the loss in productivity is estimated to be $4.2 trillion in 2023. With better prevention, detection, and treatment of chronic diseases, the estimated avoidable treatment costs and output losses in 2023 alone would be $1.1 trillion. This demonstrates the importance of improving the early detection and screening of diseases to reduce economic impacts in the future.
Since the early detection of disease is the key to improving survival rates of patients and reducing economic impacts, biosensors which can provide point of care diagnosis are extremely important. Point of care diagnosis dictates that the biosensor is located near the patient, either at the patient’s bedside or at a physician’s office, to monitor and diagnose the patient’s health and wellness and to allow same day treatment without the costly and time-consuming processes necessary when using centralized laboratories. A point of care biosensor would be of great use to patients worldwide, in both highly developed and third-world countries where laboratory facilities and resources are limited.
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Developing a low-cost, label-free, high sensitivity, high selectivity, and multiplexable optical cavity based biosensor for POC diagnosis.
We have proposed a novel optical cavity biosensor using chained differential detection for the purpose of point of care diagnosis. Optical cavity based biosensors are, by nature, very promising for point of care diagnosis due to their label-free operation, low cost, high sensitivity, and high selectivity. On top of the intrinsic benefits of optical cavity based biosensors, we has introduces (1) a three laser diode system to accomplish multiplexability, (2) a differential detection method to enhance its sensitivity, (3) a chained mechanism to increase the linear dynamic range significantly, and (4) a simple cavity structure which is easy to integrate with a sample handling system such as microfluidics.
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Developing a portable optical cavity biosensor integrated with a simple microfluidic device and demonstrating it with 6 relevant biomarkers (CK-MB/ Myoglobin/ cTnI/ D-Dimer/NT-proBNP/ hsCRP) related with cardiovascular disease.
We have formed a collaborative team with the Biomedical Micro/Nano Device (BMND) Lab at Texas Tech University (TTU). BMND at TTU previously demonstrated automated microfluidic microparticle label immunoassays and electrochemical immunoassays. Combining the expertise of BMND lab at TTU and our team, we will create SMDx (self-contained multiplex label-free diagnostics) to achieve a label-free, multiplex and seamless microfluidic molecular diagnostic system by integrating an optical cavity sensor with a self-contained microfluidic device. In this platform, various bioassay protocols can be implemented using pumpless technology while a sensitive and simultaneous detection of multiple biomarkers is accomplished using a low cost optical cavity biosensor. This research is of high significance due to its potential to yield not only fundamental knowledge of a label-free biosensing mechanism, but also a practical tool to determine a level of target biomarkers through integration with the self-contained microfluidic device.
