I-Corps: Point of care biosensor for quantification of biomarkers in bodily fluids

生物结垢是当生物传感器暴露于含有除感兴趣的分析物之外的部分的复杂介质（即血液、血浆或尿液）时发生的显著问题。生物污染的影响可以包括假阳性和检测限降低。该项目的重点是继续开发一种廉价，便携，易于使用的生物传感器。该传感器是可定制的，并且能够在医生的办公室、患者的床边或患者的家中感测各种抗原。目前的设计包括一个单一的表面声波（SAW芯片），同时感测抗原和去除生物污垢，用于检测癌症标志物。通过该项目，该团队将优化传感器设计，开发商业上可行的产品，确定客户群，并验证业务假设。这项技术更广泛的影响是它能够影响大量无法获得各种危及生命的疾病的高质量筛查/检测的人的健康。这一点在发展中国家更为明显，因为这些国家对传染病检测和检测设备的需求至关重要。生物传感器的市场正在增长，因为推动将诊断测试从大型临床实验室转移到分散的环境中，如医生办公室和步入式诊所。实施有效的护理点（POC）测试不仅会影响个人的生活，而且可以减少医院的时间和成本，这将导致更有效的医疗保健系统。

Biofouling is a significant problem which occurs when a biosensor is exposed to a complex medium (i.e. blood, plasma, or urine) that contains moieties other than the analyte of interest. Effects of biofouling can include false positives and decreased limits of detection. This project focuses on the continued development of an inexpensive, portable, and easy to use biosensor. The sensor is customizable and enables sensing of a variety of antigens in a physician's office, at a patient's bedside, or in a patient's home. The current design includes a single surface acoustic wave (SAW chip) that simultaneously senses an antigen and removes biofouling for the detection of cancer markers. Through this project, the team will optimize the sensor design, develop a commercially feasible product, identify a customer base, and validate business hypotheses. The broader impact of this technology is its ability to impact the health of large populations of people who do not have access to quality screening/tests for various life-threatening diseases. This is more evident in developing countries, where a need for tests and test devices for infectious diseases is vital. The market for biosensors is growing because of the push to move diagnostic testing out of large clinical laboratories into decentralized settings such as physicians' offices and walk-in clinics. Implementation of effective point-of-care (POC) tests will not only impact the lives of individuals, but can reduce time in and costs to hospitals, which will result in a more efficient healthcare system.