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

迫切需要能够从患者床边和医生的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定，并以更低的成本拯救生命。相比之下，现有技术需要将样本转移到中心位置的实验室，配备先进的仪器和高技能的人员。因此，使用简化、紧凑、通用和高效的工具在几分钟内提供分析结果将对许多危重患者有利。在这个项目中，我们计划开发二合一衰减全反射(ATR)/拉曼芯片，这些芯片紧凑、可批量生产、价格实惠、可靠、用户友好和高灵敏度。这些芯片的供应将使中红外分子指纹和拉曼光谱仪的全部潜力和互补性得以利用，为需要快速做出治疗决定的危重患者提供床边护理点诊断，满足世界卫生组织(WHO)设定的保证标准。例如，为早产儿(怀孕24-30周)提供快速诊断信息将是非常宝贵的，他们必须在出生后尽快做出治疗决定。由于他们的肺不成熟，这类婴儿患新生儿呼吸窘迫综合征(NRDS)的风险很高，这种综合症的死亡率和发病率都很高，给医疗服务带来了重大的长期经济负担。以nRDS为样本，我们建议开发一种紧凑、通用、快速和易于操作的床边诊断工具，用于下一代床边护理点，为nRDS提供预测性诊断测试，为治疗方案提供信息。这里提出的诊断设备平台结合了指纹中红外光谱和拉曼光谱的互补功能，其中每一种都已被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，使红外和拉曼光谱同时受益，并显著提高它们的灵敏度。这项新的光子技术和提出的便携式诊断设备不仅将为下一代生物医学诊断应用奠定基础，而且将在环境监测和传感方面产生重大影响，包括水污染监测和微量有毒气体传感。

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.