In much the same way that glucometers and pregnancy
tests have revolutionized in-home diagnostic testing,
researchers from Florida Atlantic University and
collaborators have identified a new biosensing platform
that could be used to remotely detect and determine
treatme nt opti ons for HIV, E-coli, Staphylococcus
aureas and other bacteria. Using a drop of blood from a
fingerprick, this novel biosensing platform provides
clinically relevant specificity, sensitivity and detection
of pathogens from whole blood and plasma.
The thin, lightweight and flexible materials developed
by these researchers can be fabricated and operated
without the need for expensive infrastructure and skilled
personnel, potentially solving real-world healthcare
problems for both developed and developing countries.
Using this technology, they also have developed a
phone app that could detect bacteria and disease in the
blood using images from a cellphone that could easily
be analyzed from anywhere in the world.
Waseem Asghar, Ph.D., assistant professor of electrical
engineering in the College of Engineering and Computer
Science at FAU, co-first author on the study, along with
Hadi Shafiee, Ph.D., instructor in medicine at the
Division of Biomedical Engineering at Brigham and
Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School; Fatih Inci,
Ph.D.; and Utkan Demirci, Ph.D., Stanford School of
Medicine, senior authors on the study, have publis hed
their findings in Nature Scientific Reports in an article
titled “Paper and Flexible Substrates as Materials for
Biosensing Platforms to Detect Multiple Biotargets.”
Other team members on the study include Mehmet
Yuksekkaya, Ph.D.; Muntasir Jahangir; Michael H.
Zhang; Naside Gozde Durmus, Ph.D.; Umut Atakan
Gurkan, Ph.D., and Daniel R. Kuritzkes, M.D.
In the article, the researchers address the limitations of
current paper and flexible material-based platforms and
explain how they have integrated cellulose paper and
flexible polyester films as new diagnostic tools to
detect bioagents in whole blood, serum and peritoneal
fluid. They employed three different paper and flexible
material-based platforms incorporated with electrical
and optical sensing modalities. They were able to
demonstrate how these new materials can be widely
applied to a variety of settings including medical
diagnostic and biology laboratories.
Using paper and flexible substrates as materials for
biosensors, Asghar and his colleagues have identified a
new rapid and cost-effective way to diagnose diseases
and monitor treatment in point-of-care settings. They
have been able to show how their new platforms are
uniquely able to isolate and detect multiple biotargets
selectively, sensitively, and repeatedly from diverse
biological mediums using antibodies.
“There is a dire need for robust, portable, disposable
and inexpensive biosensing platforms for clinical care,
especially in developing countries with limited
resources,” said Asghar.
Existing paper and flexible material-based platforms
use colorimetric, fluorometric and electrochemical
approaches that require complex labeling steps to
amplify their signal, are very costly to fabricate and
also require expensive equipment and infrastructure.
“The future of diagnostics and health monitoring will
have potentially cell-phone based or portable readers
sipping saliva or blood and continuously monitoring
human health taking it way beyond where we are with
counting steps today,” said Demirci, who is the
corresponding author.

http://www.punchng.com/health/healthwise/smart-phone-app-detects-bacteria-diseases/

Good innovation.