Combining the Strengths of Mid-IR and Raman Spectroscopies on Single Chip for Rapid Bedside Biomarker Diagnostics

迫切需要能够在患者床边和医生手术中快速产生结果的诊断工具。快速、准确的结果将允许快速做出治疗决策，并以更低的成本挽救生命。相比之下，现有技术需要将样品转移到配备有精密仪器和高技能人员的位于中心的实验室。因此，使用简化、紧凑、多功能和高效的工具在几分钟内提供分析结果的床旁诊断将是许多危重患者的布恩。在这个项目中，我们建议开发二合一衰减全反射（ATR）/拉曼芯片，是紧凑的，可批量生产，负担得起的，可靠的，用户友好的和高灵敏度。这种芯片的可用性将使中红外分子指纹和拉曼光谱的全部潜力和互补性质能够用于需要快速治疗决策的危重患者的床旁护理点诊断，满足世界卫生组织（WHO）设定的ASSURED标准。提供快速诊断信息对早产儿（妊娠24-30周）非常重要，必须在出生后尽快作出治疗决定。由于他们的肺不成熟，这些婴儿患有新生儿呼吸窘迫综合征（nRDS）的风险很高，其具有高死亡率和发病率，对医疗保健服务造成重大的长期经济负担。以nRDS为例，我们建议为下一代床边护理点开发一种紧凑、通用、快速且易于操作的床边诊断工具，为nRDS提供预测性诊断测试，以告知治疗方案。本文提出的诊断设备平台结合了指纹中红外和拉曼光谱的互补能力，其中每一个都已被独立地证明是针对特定生物标志物的强大生物诊断工具。此外，我们将采用一种独特的信号增强策略，这将同时有利于红外和拉曼光谱，并显着提高其灵敏度。这种新的光子技术和便携式诊断设备不仅将支持下一代生物医学诊断应用，而且还将对环境监测和传感产生重大影响，包括水污染监测和痕量有毒气体传感。

There is a pressing need for diagnostic tools that can produce results quickly from patients' bedsides and in doctors' surgeries. Rapid, accurate results will allow rapid therapeutic decisions and save lives at reduced cost. In contrast, existing technologies require transfer of samples to centrally located laboratories equipped with sophisticated instruments, and highly skilled personnel.Bedside diagnostics using simplified, compact, versatile and efficient tools providing analysis results within a few minutes will therefore be a boon for many critically ill patients. In this project, we propose to develop two-in-one attenuated total reflection (ATR)/Raman chips that are compact, mass-producible, affordable, reliable, user-friendly and highly sensitive. The availability of such chips will enable the full potential and complementary nature of mid-IR molecular fingerprint and Raman spectroscopies to be exploited for bedside point-of-care diagnosis of critically ill patients who require rapid therapeutic decisions, meeting the ASSURED criteria set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).For example, provision of rapid diagnostic information will be invaluable for preterm infants (24-30 weeks gestation), for whom treatment decisions must be made as soon after birth as possible. Due to their lung immaturity, such infants are at high risk of suffering from neonatal Respiratory Distress Syndrome (nRDS), which has a high rates of mortality and morbidity with a major long-term economic burden on healthcare services. Using nRDS as an exemplar, we propose to develop a compact, versatile, rapid and easily operable bedside diagnostic tool for the next-generation bedside point-of-care to provide a predictive diagnostic test for nRDS to inform treatment options. The diagnostic device platform proposed here combines the complementary capabilities of fingerprint Mid-IR and Raman spectroscopies, each of which has been shown independently to be powerful biodiagnostic tool for specific biomarkers. In addition, we will employ a unique signal enhancement strategy that will simultaneously benefit both IR and Raman spectroscopies and significantly enhance their sensitivities. This new photonic technology and the portable diagnostic device proposed will not only underpin next-generation biomedical diagnostic applications but will also have major impacts in environmental monitoring and sensing including water pollution monitoring and trace toxic gas sensing.