KTH to present novel components for miniaturized biosensors
The new research will be presented at the annual Micro Total Analysis Systems conference in Gyeongju, Korea, on October 25-29.
In the Micro and nanosystems department at KTH we develop labs-on-a-chip for diagnosing patients in healthcare, and methods to manufacture them at low cost. This year, Micro and Nanosystems new research will be presented at The Micro Total Analysis Systems conference in Gyeongju, Korea.
In life science and diagnostics, very small volumes (< nano-liters) of biological liquids need to be stored for a long time. However, such small liquid volumes dry out very quickly, and therefore the liquid has to be encapsulated. In addition, biological liquids are sensitive to high temperatures and harsh chemicals. Today’s solutions to this problem are costly and complicated, and so Maoxiang Guo and Alexander Vastesson will present an uncomplicated method for encapsulating thousands of pico-liter small (10-12 liter) containers in a plastic chip at room temperature without harsh chemicals, and store them for days without drying. The key behind the method is to use a specially designed plastic material, OSTEmer™ , that can ecapsulate liquid by glueing to 100 nanometer gold films at room temperature, making it suitable for temperature-sensitive applications such as biomolecule storage.
Laila Ladhani will talk about how to improve collection of infectious virus particles from air. She obtained a higher sampling efficiency by using a novel 3D collector cage. Laila's work is a vital component in the development of point-of-care breath samplers as non-invasive diagnostic tools in medical settings, for example to detect Influenza directly from the breath of infected patients.
Jonas Hansson will have an oral presentation about his latest results on "Synthetic Microfluidic Paper" - a well controlled plastic paper for highly sensitive home diagnostics.