Multiplex electrochemical profiling of Extracellular vesicles for early cancer diagnosis

循环生物标志物提供了人体生物过程的有用指标，其在生物体液中的浓度已被用于临床风险评估、诊断、预后和治疗结果监测。循环生物标志物的异常浓度与健康状况有关。电化学检测是一种很有前途的检测生物流体中循环生物标志物水平的工具。此外，电化学传感器能够对体液中的生物标志物进行高通量和快速分析，用于诊断和治疗应用。早期诊断的关键挑战是在小样本量中快速检测低浓度的循环生物标志物，通常是在具有大背景噪声的复杂混合物中。此外，疾病（如炎症性疾病、痴呆或癌症）的复杂性增加要求多重传感——同时检测一组生物标志物以进行精确诊断。该项目旨在开发基于石墨烯的超灵敏免疫分析，用于细胞外囊泡的多重检测，用于早期癌症诊断。石墨烯基电化学生物传感器具有高灵敏度、高选择性、小型化的可能性和适应大规模生产的能力，具有广阔的应用前景。学生将研究(a)多路石墨烯传感器的设计；(b)优化表面化学以成功实现抗体的生物功能化，(c)开发电化学传感器分析以精确检测肿瘤来源的细胞外囊泡表面蛋白，(d)演示实时检测临床验证的多种与癌症相关的生物标志物。

Circulating biomarkers provide useful indicators of biological processes in the human body, and their concentrations in biofluids have been used for clinical risk assessment, diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of therapeutic outcomes. Abnormal concentrations of circulating biomarkers are associated with health conditions. Electrochemical detection is a promising tool to detect the levels of circulating biomarkers in biofluids. Additionally, electrochemical sensors enable high throughput and rapid analysis of such biomarkers in bodily fluids for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The key challenge for early diagnostics is for the rapid detection of low concentrations of circulating biomarkers in small sample volumes, typically in a complex mixture with large background noise. Moreover, the increased complexity of diseases (such as inflammatory diseases, dementia or cancer) demands the multiplex sensing - the simultaneous detection of a panel of biomarkers for precise diagnosis. This project aims to develop ultrasensitive graphene-based immunoassays for the multiplex detection of extracellular vesicles for early cancer diagnostics. Specifically, the graphene based electrochemical biosensors are promising due to its high sensitivity and selectivity, miniaturisation possibility and adaptability for large scale manufacturing. The student will investigate (a) designing of multiplex graphene sensors; (b) optimisation the surface chemistries for successful bio-functionalisation with the antibodies, (c) develop electrochemical sensor assays for the precise detection of tumour derived extracellular vesicle surface proteins and (d) demonstrate real-time detection of clinically validated multiple biomarkers relevant to cancer.