Development of a lab-on-a-chip for point-of-care biomonitoring of blood metals

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请旨在通过开发一种传感器来改变当前血液金属分析的范式，该传感器将为易感儿科人群提供快速准确的血液金属即时测量。儿童低水平、混合暴露于铅（Pb）、锰（Mn）和镉（Cd）的生物标志物是必不可少的。显然需要改进技术，以定量评估和确定这些暴露的不利后果。目前的方法成本高，包括大量的劳动力、设备和耗时的实验室程序，而且往往证明周转时间长。该项目通过开发一种同时快速测量全血中重金属的新型传感器技术来满足这一需求。我们的方法是将阳极溶出伏安法与我们在芯片实验室和微流体方面的深厚专业知识相结合。我们的工程师、化学家和临床/环境健康专家组成的多学科团队已经朝着开发这种设备迈出了第一步，并通过试点测试证明了传感器的可行性。我们现在准备全面开发用于即时护理应用的传感器系统。这个项目将是第一个

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application seeks to transform the current paradigm for blood metal analysis through the development of a sensor that will provide rapid and accurate point-of-care measurement of blood metals in susceptible pediatric populations. Biomarkers of pediatric, low-level, mixed exposures to lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), and cadmium (Cd) are essential. There is a clear need for improved technology to quantitatively assess and identify adverse consequences of these exposures. Current approaches suffer from high costs including extensive labor, equipment and time-consuming laboratory procedures, and often demonstrate long turnaround times. This project addresses this need by developing a novel sensor technology for simultaneous and swift measurement of heavy metals in whole blood. Our approach is to integrate anodic stripping voltammetry with our deep expertise in lab-on-a-chip and microfluidics. Our multidisciplinary team of engineers, chemists, and clinical/environmental health experts has already taken the first steps towards developing such a device and has demonstrated feasibility of the sensor through pilot tests. We are now poised to fully develop the sensor system for point-of-care application. This project will be the first to develop an environmentally-friendly lab-on- a-chip sensor for point-of-care multi-metal analysis, which will provide real-time analysis of metals for susceptible populations, in national and international research and clinical settings. Collaboration with our commercialization partner will position the multi-metal sensor for wide-spread use in clinical and research settings.