A Rapid Label-free Sensor for Immune Markers of Environmental Exposure

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant) Airborne particulate matter (PM) derived from a variety of natural sources (volcanic activity, forest fires) is omnipresent. However, human activity since the industrial revolution and the advent of the internal combustion engine has substantially increased the concentration of PM, particularly in urban areas. Human derived PM tends to be of smaller size, facilitating entry into the body through the respiratory and digestive tracts, as well as through the skin. It also tends to have adsorbed chemical species with greater toxicity than its natural counterparts. The explosive growth of nanotechnology in research and consumer products (sunscreens, cosmetics, paint) is also creating an array of ultrafine materials with largely unknown health effects. Despite numerous studies implicating PM in various disorders including acute respiratory infections, lung cancer, and chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, the specific biological mechanisms involved are not fully understood. Pathologics seeks to leverage its proprietary Arrayed Imaging Reflectometery (AIR) biosensing platform to build a device capable of capturing the detailed physiological response to PM exposure by profiling key marker proteins in conveniently available biosamples such as a finger pick of blood, urine, mucous, saliva, etc. Currently, such testing takes hours and is often done with individual tests. AIR is capable of sensitive and simultaneous protein detection with a device that is currently the size of a laptop computer. The low complexity of the testing platform will also enable the development of handheld units that would be particularly useful for profiling exposure response in the field. In addition to saving time and offering greater convenience these multiplex sensors will allow far more molecular data to be collected than is currently feasible.