A research team led by Dr. Larysa Baraban at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) develops intelligent, miniaturized biosensor devices and systems using nanomaterials to determine biomolecules and cells as well as biochemical reactions or processes as disease markers.The ability to detect diseases at an early stage or even predict their onset would be of tremendous benefit to doctors and patients alike. These biosensors can be designed to specifically detect different biomolecules. Different pathogens cause different electrical potentials and therefore different currents. For example, cancer cells cause different currents than a flu virus.
The team’s current publication in Biosensors and Bioelectronics describes the development of a portable, palm-sized test system that can simultaneously carry out up to 32 analyses of one sample.
Various possibilities and mechanisms exist for detecting pathogens in body fluids. One option that Baraban investigates at the HZDR-Institute of Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research is the detection using field-effect transistors (FETs) from the realm of electronics.
The operating principle is simple: a defined electrical current flows from A to B. This current can be regulated by the electrical potential on the surface of a gate, which functions like a precise, continuous valve.
Disease-relevant biomolecules bind to the gate surface and thereby change the electrical potential and therefore the current as well. If there is no significant change in the current, no biomolecules have bound to the sensor surface. On the other hand, a change in the current means that disease-related molecules can be detected on the sensor surface.
For more details please see the following research article…
A new approach for fast and cost-effective pathogen detection https://phys.org/news/2024-02-approach-fast-effective-pathogen.html
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-approach-fast-effective-pathogen.amp
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