4^th International Conference and Exhibition on Biosensors & Bioelectronics September 28-30, 2015 Hilton Atlanta Airport, USA

Biography:

Yu Lei is a Castleman Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut, USA. He obtained his PhD degree in 2004 at the University of California-Riverside in Chemical and Environmental Engineering. His current research combines biotechnology, nanotechnology, and sensing technology, especially as applied to the development of gas sensors, electrochemical sensors, and biosensors.

Abstract:

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder caused due to lack of insulin production by pancreatic islet cells (Type I) or underutilization of insulin produced in the pancreas (Type II). Complications arising due to this disease can be minimized by vigilant monitoring of blood glucose levels. In this study, a fluorescent enzymatic hydrogel was designed for rapid glucose detection. The formation of glucose-responsive hydrogen was realized using crosslinking of functional poly (ethylene glycol), protein, glucose oxidase (GOx) and Coumarin-NH2, in which GOx serves as glucose-recognition element and pH-sensitive Coumarin-NH2 as a fluorescence “turn-on” reporter. Thermal and mechanical properties of the hydrogel scaffold with and without sensing elements were systematically analyzed. Especially the compression analysis of the fluorescent hydrogel shows high elasticity with good mechanical strength. The as-developed fluorescent hydrogel shows fast response time, good sensitivity and good reproducibility at physiological pH upon the addition of glucose. The glucose sensing mechanism was relied on that GOx takes glucose as substrate to liberate proton, which results in the fluorescence “turn-on” of pH-sensitive Courmarin-NH2 covalently immobilized in the hydrogel. The developed fluorescence hydrogel holds great promise as an injectable glucose biosensor for in-vivo continuous glucose monitoring.

Biography:

Laurent A Francis received MS and PhD degrees from the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium, in 2001 and 2006, respectively. He is currently working as an Associate Professor at UCL. His research interests are related to co-integrated, ultra-low power CMOS MEMS sensors for biomedical applications and harsh environments. He was previously Researcher at IMEC in Leuven, Belgium, and a visiting Professor at the Université de Sherbrooke, Canada. He is author or co-author of more than 70 scientific articles, has co-edited one book and holds one patent. He is member of the Belgian National Committee on Biomedical Engineering and of the IEEE.

Abstract:

The rapid and selective detection of whole bacterial cells is of interest for the development of Point-of-Care (PoC) diagnosis tools and Lab-on-Chip (LoC) systems. Different types of transducers are promising to that end, including in particular capacitive biosensors. For them, we present here a three-step approach to investigate the AC impedance spectroscopy of interdigitated microelectrodes coated by an ultrathin passivation layer and operated in electrolytes with bacterial cells adherent to the surface. The first step is an accurate quantification of the device sensitivity helped by analytical models and two-dimensional simulations. The simulations are based on Poisson-Nernst-Planck equations and include the modeling of the sensor topology, the dielectric properties of multi-shell bacteria, the various ionic transports, and surface and space charges. The second step is to ensure the selectivity by involving lysostaphin for genus-specific bacterial detection. The sample matrix is then directly flown on the polydopamine-covered sensor surface without any pre-treatment. The third step is the integration of microelectrodes with a 0.25 µm CMOS process as the pixel element of a capacitive array. A capacitive-to-voltage conversion was designed below each pixel and the sensitivity is boosted by a subthreshold gain stage. The capacitive biosensor array performs dielectric measurement of the electrolytes and, as proof of concept, the real-time detection of Staphylococcus epidermidis binding events with a detection limit of about 5 bacteria per pixel. Pushing further the limits of the device will drive to small footprint and low power consumption capacitive array for the real-time detection of single bacterium.

Biography:

Peng Chen is currently an Associate Professor and Program Director of Bioengineering in School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). He completed his PhD at University of Missouri (Columbia) in 2002. This was followed by a period of Post doctoral Research at Harvard University. His research interests are in the areas of nanomaterials, biosensors, and bio nanotechnology, which has led to >130 publications in leading journals. He is particularly interested in applying interdisciplinary and integrative approaches to study biomedical problems.

Abstract:

As the current follows solely or largely on the surface, the conductance of the semiconducting nanomaterials is highly sensitive to the electrochemical perturbation induced by the interacting biomolecules or by biological activities of the interacting cells. Taking advantage of this, nanoelectronic biosensors based on these nanostructured materials have been developed, promising novel applications for fundamental studies, diagnosis, and drug screening. This presentation briefly reviews our works on the nanoelectronics-biology interface. More specifically, we have developed and used nanoelectronic field-effect transistors based on carbon nanotubes, graphene, or silicon nanowires to electrically detect the presence of biomolecules or dynamic activities of live cells (secretion of biomolecules or chemicals, ion channel activities, metabolic activities), with high sensitivity, high temporal resolution, and high throughput.

Biography:

Gymama Slaughter received her B.S. in Chemistry and her Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the Virginia Commonwealth University. She was the Director of the Center for Biosystems and Engineering at Virginia State University. She joined the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2010. Prof. Slaughter is the Director of the Bioelectronics Laboratory and is a recipient of the NSF CAREER award in 2014. Her work is on the design and development of biosensor and nanoelectrode arrays for monitoring blood glucose and neurological disorders. She has published 24 peer-reviewed scientific articles on her work.

Abstract:

Microfabrication is an enabling technology with a broad set of applications that continues to grow. One major challenge in implementing bio-implantable bioelectronic devices such as continuous glucose monitor is to develop it so that it can power itself. We develop miniaturized integrated self-powered biosensing microsystems that is simple yet fully functional to conduct frequent, autonomous glucose sensing experiments in vitro and in vivo. In our laboratory, we are exploring the design, fabrication, and testing of flexible electrochemical power systems with integrated glucose biosensing capability. The multi-functional device will not only have the ability to generate bioelectricity from the direct conversion of the chemical energy stored in glucose, it will also utilize the energy generated by the transduction of chemical energy into electrical energy resulting from glucose as the fuel source to determine the concentration of glucose. One can envision implanting such a device into patients with diabetes thereby harnessing bioelectricity from within the body to power ultra-low power bioelectronic devices and obtaining blood glucose measurement simultaneously. This talk will highlight the importance of electrochemical power systems to medicine and how they can be employed to harness the biochemical energy from within the body.

Biography:

Nicole McFarlane received the BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from Howard University, Washington DC, in 2001 and 2003 respectively, and her PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park in 2010. Her research experience includes growing and characterizing III–V Nitrides, understanding information and power efficiency trade-offs in mixed signal integrated circuit design, CMOS biosensors and CMOS/MEMS integration for lab-on-a-chip technologies. She has been an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee since 2010, working on sensors, devices and electronics for portable and implantable applications.

Abstract:

Electrophysiological, electrochemical and electroanalytical detection performed using electrodes in the nanometer range have emerged as promising avenues for the interrogation and monitoring of real time biochemical dynamics at the single cell level. The promise of these electrodes lie in their fast response times, high mass sensitivity, small size, large linear dynamic range, and molecules of interest which can be followed without the need for chemical derivitization, as is necessary with fluorescent probe techniques. In the large variety of sensor materials available, carbon is a popular sensing electrode due to its unique structural and material properties. These properties include high conductivity, durability in harsh environment, and inertness to processing steps. The crucial advantage of aligned carbon nanofibers over other nanostructures, such an carbon nanotubes, is that they can be grown deterministically such that their position, height, tip diameter, and, to some extent, shape and orientation can all be controlled. Additionally, reliable mechanical and electrical contact to the substrate can be established because of their excellent conductive and structural properties. In collaboration with Syed Islam’s group and Oak Ridge National Lab, we have demonstrated an electrochemical biosensing platform using vertically aligned carbon nanofibers. The sensor is capable of sensing a wide range of physiolocially relevant glucose levels and has shown excellent repeatablility, linearity, sensitivity and resolution. This talk will present the status of our work including our experimental results and future plans for the technology.

Biography:

Muhammad Mujeeb-U-Rahman did his MS and PhD in Electrical Engineering at Caltech. His thesis work was focussed on developeing novel fully integrated systems which can perate as wireless sensors in complex biochemical environment like human body. This work has lead to the inception of a funded startup company focused on developing next generation glucose sensor products. Dr. Mujeeb-U-Rahman received the Demetriades - Tsafka - Kokkalis Prize for best work in Nanotechnology at Caltech in 2014. He is also a Fulbright fellow for his MS. Prior to coming to Caltech, he was founding member of the WiMAX research group at Caltech which was started based upon his senior thesis work.

Abstract:

Diabetes is a significant health care issue which affects millions of people worldwide. Diabetes management at different stages requires glucose sensing followed by appropriate medical actions. Accurate and reliable sensing is an important component for the complete solution to disease management as well as to scientific studies required for better understanding of the disease and effect of different therapeutic factors for its prevention or treatment. To achieve the goal of low-cost, long term solution for accurate glucose sensing, we have been working on developing a novel, fully-integrated sensing technology which holds the key to solve the significant challenges inherent in current glucose sensing technologies. This system is based upon CMOS integrated electrochemical sensors with integrated control and autonomous wireless operation. A combination of extremely efficient circuit design, wireless operation (using RFID like technology) and Nanotechnology allows extreme miniaturization resulting in the smallest working platform to date. I will also present a smart external reader technology that can be used as a wearable device for continuous reading or used with smart phone for discrete readouts. In this talk, I will go through the motivation behind our smart design and the advantages it has over current devices, both commercial and research devices. I will explain the key design challenges and their effect on the overall system design. I will present the status of our work, including extensive in-vitro and preliminary in-vivo results. I will conclude with the plan to move forward with this technology and the clinical strategy to get this technology ready for human use.

Biography:

Will get updated shortly....!

Abstract:

The existing carbon materials can be classified into activated carbon (0-dimensional), carbon nanotubes (CNT) (1-dimensional), graphene (2-dimensional) and carbon foams (3-dimensional). Among these, graphene is well known to be the top candidate; However, preparation of graphene from graphite is an intricate procedure that can lead to an explosion during the oxidation of graphite. Similarly, the preparation of CNT also has some practical difficulties due to the complicated instrument setup. Fascinatingly, the preparation of ACs is simple, environmentally friendly and cost-effective. For the first time, activated carbon (ACs) with high surface area and volume has prepared by ZnCl2 activation at three different temperatures (700-900°C), using a simple and eco-friendly method. The morphology and chemical composition of the resultant ACs were characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, elemental analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy. Here, we used the AC-700°C (AC) modified glassy carbon electrode (GCE) for the simultaneous and selective electrochemical detection of AA, DA and UA and dye-sensitized solar cell applications. Furthermore, a novel spherical carbon nanoparticle decorated activated carbon (SNAC) material with a high surface area of about 1555 m2g-1 is prepared from dead mango leaves by an eco-friendly method for the detection of toxic heavy metal ions and energy storage applications. The amounts of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur in SNAC are determined to be 72.6, 6.1, 6.5, and 7.46%, respectively. The limits of detection (LODs) for the determination of Cd(II), Pb(II), Cu(II), and Hg(II) ions at the SNAC-modified GCE are 24.4×10-9 M, 5.7×10-9 M, 23.2×10-9 M and 24.6×10-9 M, respectively. On the other hand, the maximum obtained specific capacitance is 478 F g-1 at a scan rate of 5 mV s-1. In addition, we prepared a novel nanocomposite viz. gold nanoparticles (Au) decorated activated carbon (SNAC) modified glassy carbon electrode by a simple electrochemical approach to trace level detection of hydrazine. The amounts of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen functional groups is a promising way to hold the Au nanoparticles in the carbon network. The electro-oxidation of hydrazine has been assessed by cyclic voltammetry, linear sweep voltammetry and amperometric sensor. Furthermore, the high-surface-area (~1456 m2 g-1) with highly porous and heteroatoms-enriched in nature of activated carbon (HAC) was prepared from the banana stem (Musa paradisiaca Family:Musaceae) at different carbonization temperatures of 700ºC, 800ºC and 900ºC. The HAC contains the amount of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur are determined to be 61.12, 2.567, 0.4315, and 0.349%, respectively. Moreover, we prepared a novel nanocomposite viz. nickel oxide (NiO) decorated activated carbon (HAC) modified glassy carbon electrode by a simple electrochemical approach for a novel non-enzymatic glucose sensor. The oxygen functional groups are a promising way to hold the NiO nanoparticles in the carbon network. The fabricated dye sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) with Pumpkin stem-AC counter electrodes shown the higher power conversion efficiency of 2.79%.

Biography:

Hossam Sayour has completed his PhD at the age of 36 years from Ain Shams University and postdoctoral studies from Animal Health. He is leader of research group of sensors and biosensors, a mentor of emerging molecular imprinting applications in theranostics, food safety and environment. He has published more than 17 papers in reputed journals and has been serving as multidisiplinary research team advisor in both biomedical, environmental engineering.

Abstract:

No society is capable of reaching the goals of a comprehensive, sustainable development, and facing the demands of the future except with knowledge, technological development and innovation, through channeled academic research, which is considered in any society the cornerstone to academic progress and development. Therefore, advanced countries strove to increase their support of academic research and its development. Methods and multiple forms were founded to achieve the utmost avail of academic research in its various types with special attention to the innovative, technological and industrial side. As a result, there emerges an escalation in endowing chaired positions in advanced and future sciences, expanding the establishment of research and technology parks, incubators, centers for innovation and excellence, the valleys of research and development, all are efforts aiming at initiating fertile domains for innovation. Importance of effecting more interconnection and integration among the functions and activities of science and technology institutions, along with creativity Biosensors Technology and Molecular Imprinted Polymers: Potential Applications of Theranostics, Food Safety and Environment was suggested. Early identification and rapid investigation are crucial for outbreak prevention. Several international organizations such as WHO, OIE, FAO and EPA called upon the development of rapid, sensitive, low cost, and easy to use early diagnosis of pathogens “rapid field test” or “point of care diagnostics”. The detection and monitoring diseases has been a huge burden due to the high cost of reagents, laboratory sophisticated equipment s and trained personals. Most of expenses spent for disease diagnoses go to analytical and diagnostic devices. Moreover, laboratories are hard to find in the remote epidemic areas and agriculture farms. There has been tremendous development and advancements in the field of Molecular biology, Nanotechnology, Electromechanical, Bio-MEMS systems and wireless sensors networks (WSN’s). These advanced technologies led to the development of Bio-microchip devices for the detection of chemical and biological hazards. Lab-on-a-chip technique is considered to be one of the top emerging technologies. In chemistry, molecular imprinting is a technique to create template-shaped cavities in polymer matrices with memory of the template molecules the same merits of Lock and the Key theory/paradigm (Linus Pauling 1940). Scientists have been working for decades to mimic the exquisite molecular recognition ability of biological molecules such as antibodies, enzymes, and receptors. In the recent years, imprinted polymers have been used to capture/recognize everything from macromolecules to inorganic ions. Recognition plays an important role in biological systems and is observed in between receptor- ligand, antigen-antibody, DNA-protein, sugar-lectin, RNA-ribosome, substrate-enzyme etc. The world is living the plastic age so MIP’s would offer smart solutions in the fields of theranostics, food safety, environmental and sensor technology. Molecular Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) have been applied as artificial antibodies, catalysts, sensors, drug assay & delivery tools, and chromatographic separations. Finally, MIP is science goes market upon business analysis based on patents.

Biography:

Ewelina Zabost presently works as Associate Professor at University of Warsaw, Faculty of cheistry snd R&D support in High-Tech Companies. Responsible for managenement of National and International Research Projects (7), Mangement of Projects reffered to promotion and realization of innovative solutions at the workplace, teaching (preparation of several lectures and labs) and tutoring for Bachelor and Master studies at Faculty of Chemistry. Research activity in interdisciplinary fields of sciences: analytical chemistry, biophysics, biochemistry, pharmaceutical, drug delivery, biomaterials, nanomaterials, biosensors. Membership activity in 4 international scientific organizations (International Society of Electrochemistry, Bioelectrochemical Society, Royal Society of Chemistry, Controlled Release Society). Autor and co-autor of peer reviewed publications (10) and presentations (43). 2 golds, 1 silver medals and “Rising Star” title from Taiwan Prominent Inventor League for presenting of innovative solitions on International Fares. In board of audit and vice-president of two Associations in Poland: TOP 500 Innovators and Science-Management-Infrastructure-Support Association.

Abstract:

Recent interest in designing micro- and nano-sized drug delivery systems and layers is oriented on creation of delivery systems for poorly soluble and/or highly unstable substances. In our work we would like to expand the synthesis ways and optimization steps needed for preparation of multicomponent biomaterials with improved storage, delivery and sensing properties. Firstly, we would like to present steps involves the application of charge controlled coaxial core-shell electrospinning process for creation of thin micro- and nanocomposites of PLC/PNIPA/DNA/Au NPs with attached selected antitumor drugs. They were attached by noncovalent and covalent bonding sensitive to tumor environment. Modified gold nanoparticles were entrapped in PLCL fibers during electrospinning process. We investigated the release profiles of drug-modified Au NPs from PLC nanofibers, by spectroscopic (UV-Vis, CD) and electrochemical techniques (CV, SWV) and in vitro experiments (HeLa, Insulinoma and Glioma cells). The morphology of composites was inspected by TEM, SEM and optical microscopy. Secondly, we would like to show several kinds of metallic NPS and hydrogel based nanoparticles modified by selected aptamers. We applied PAM and PNIPA hydrogel networks, for formation of multicomponent nanoparticles for storing of selected antitumor intercalators and releasing of it after initiation of structural changes of aptamers and volume phase transition of lattices. The DNA-based biomaterials were characterized by a strong increase in guanine and adenine anodic currents that starts at physiological temperature. The structural alterations were used as a control element in the releasing of drugs.Thirdly, we would like to expand the possibility of application of multicomponent, metallic NPS and hydrogel-based nanoparticles modified covalently with selected aptamers as sensing layers used in electrochemical sensors. We optimized the design process of such biosensors for improved detection of MUC1 protein.

Biography:

Wing-Cheung Law obtained his BE and MPhil degrees in Electronic Engineering from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003 and 2005 respectively. He received PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from State University of New York at Buffalo, USA in 2011. Prior joining the Hong Kong Polytechnic University as an Assistant Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering, he has been serving as Research Assistant Professor in the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics of State University of New York at Buffalo, USA, conducting researches in the field of biophotonics and nanomedicine. His research focuses on building nanoparticle-based biosensing system and translating the bench-top setups into final products. He received two patents on designing surface plasmon resonance biosensors. He has published more than 80 peer reviewed journals and served as a reviewer for 20 international journals.

Abstract:

Nanoparticle-mediated sensing has become a major focus of research activity in recent years. The distinct features of the variety of nanoparticles have attracted significant attention in the chemical/biological sensing communities due to their capability of sensitivity improvement. It is important to know that a fast, reliable, high-sensitivity and cost effective biosensor would enable us to effectively impede the harmful substances around us, preventing potential disastrous outcomes. Recently, Luther et al. demonstrated that the absorbance obtained from the cation-deficient semiconductors results from LSPR of free holes. They found that in the case of Cu2-xS, the wavelength of the LSPR absorbance peak is very sensitive to the concentration of free holes. The Manna group investigated the possibility of reversibly tuning the absorption band of Cu2-xSe. They could tune the hole-implicated LSPR peak of Cu2-xSe by oxidizing the NCs using a cerium (IV) complex. These novel nanocrystals have also been shown to have potential in biomedical applications. Hessel et al. and Liu et al. have shown the potential of Cu2–xSe as a potent photothermal therapeutic agent, and as a powerful contrast agent for photoacoustic imaging, respectively. However, these heavily doped semiconductor NCs have not yet been used for chemical sensing purposes. In this abstract, detection and quantification of heavy metal ion (e.g.Pb2+) using Cu2-xS NC will be introduced.

Biography:

Munawar Hussain worked as assistant professor in chemistry at Islamia University Bahawalpur, Pakistan from 2001-2008. He received his PhD in 2011 and his first post doctorate 2011-12 from University of Vienna, Austria. He has been working as a principal investigator and senior scientist at Tubingen University, Germany since October 2012. He mainly focuses artificial biomimetic materials for pharmaceutical and clinical applications of QCM-D technique. He focuses coagulation assays, haemostais, thrombosis, platelets aggregation, cancer cells and mesenchymal stem cells. He is famous for professional photography and tourism.

Abstract:

QCM-D (Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation) has outstanding potential for thrombosis and haemostasis studies in therapeutic directions and decisions.It is also attractive as diagnostic tool for clinical challenges in the prospective of cost-effectiveness, robustness and straightforwardness. An important relevant example is Heparin induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) platelet aggregation diagnostics. For HIT today’s clinics rely on functional assays including HIPA tests (heparin induced platelet aggregation) and serotonin release tests. These tests are tedious, time consuming and costly. HIT assays are part of clinical diagnostic but these need high expertise in this area. Owing to tediousness, time consumption and costs such tests should not be performed in laboratories with limited experiences in this area. QCM-D has outstanding potential for HIT detection of destructive antibodies via using ultrasensitive thin films.

Biography:

Matic Krivec, obtained his Ph.D. degree in 2014 at Jozef Stefan International Postgraduate School (Slovenia) in the field of nanosciences and nanotechnologies and is currently a full-time junior researcher at CTR Carinthian Tech Research AG in Austria. His recent research topics are synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles, in particular TiO2 nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes, and their integration into smart devices (microreactors, gas sensors, electrochemical sensors). He is an author and co-author of 5 publications in peer-reviewed journals, 18 publications in conference proceedings and one PCT patent application.

Abstract:

The rising demand of personalised therapeutic products has led to an increasing interest in the investigation of sensing approaches for the detection of drugs, food compounds, and natural substances including potential mutual interferences. Although enzyme-based electro-chemical bio-sensors show significant potential towards the construction of a sensitive and selective sensor, a direct quantitative detection of the enzyme’s catalytic activity still remains challenging. Distinct properties of the enzyme are required as well as an electrode in order to enhance the direct electron transfer (DET) between the enzyme’s catalytic active site and the electrode. Cytochrome P450 enzymes (CYPs) comprise for about 80% of the Phase-I drug-metabolizing enzymes in the human liver, whereas they functionalize chemicals that are foreign to the human body (xenobiotics) and endogenous substrates in order to increase their excretion. In our study, a screen printed working electrode with an additional carbon nanotube layer was functionalised with microsomes prepared from insect cells infected with recombinant baculovirus containing human isoenzyme cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6) and cytochrome P450 reductase, using a drop-casting technique and the immobilisation was additionally stabilised using two different cross-linkers, i.e. glutaraldehyde and poly(ethyleneglycol) diglycidyl ether, and an additional stabilising agent Nafion. The characterisation of the biosensor was conducted in a micro-cell, the activity of the immobilised CYP2D6 enzyme was measured by conversion of two model substrates, i.e. Luciferin-ME EGE and dextromethorphan, where the concentration of the products, i.e. Luciferin EGE and dextrorphan, were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. The stability, selectivity and sensitivity of the biosensor were evaluated using a cyclic-voltametrical and chronoamperometrical processing of the induced signal.

Biography:

Christopher Edozie Sunday is currently a teaching assistance at University of Western Cape, South Africa. His research interests include Analytical Chemistry, Spectroscopy, HPLC, Electrochemistry, FTIR

Abstract:

We report a new concept to construct a label-free electrochemical inhibition-based immunosensor for the detection of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) in cereal samples. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy of tris(bipyridine) ruthenium (II) chloride was used as a marker enhanced with gold nanoparticles-dotted 4-nitrophenylazo functionalized graphene (AuNp/G/PhNO2) nanocatalyst mediated in Nafion on a glassy carbon electrode. Under the optimized conditions, the formation of immunocomplexes inhibited electron flow and increased the charge transfer resistance of the sensing interface linearly. The change in impedance was proportional to DON concentrations in the range of 6–30 ng/mL with a sensitivity and detection limit of 32.14 ΩL/ng and 0.3 μg/mL, respectively, which compares favorably with the ELISA result. The proposed sensor had a stability of 80.3%, good precision and selectivity in DON standard solution containing different interfering agents, indicating promising application prospect for this strategy in designing impedimetric, electrochemiluminescent, voltammetric or amperometric sensors. Biography:

Biography:

Xiaoyu Ma is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, USA. She earned her Bachelor degree in 2012 from Northwest A&F University, China. Her research concentrates on biodegradable hydrogel for biomedical applications.

Abstract:

Malaria plagues seriously in some tropical parts of the world, partly due to thelack of low-cost, sensitive diagnostic tools accessible.A simple way for fast monitoring malaria infection is to detect the elevated level of heme/heminin the blood serum. In this study, fluorescent protein nanoparticles were prepared and then employed to develop a novel optical biosensor for heme/hemin detection.The as-prepared protein nanoparticles were characterized by various advanced technologies. Its application for ultrasensitive heme/hemin detection was also demonstrated as the fluorescence intensity of the protein nanoparticles were quenched significantly upon the titration of hemin. The ultrasensitive sensing performance is ascribed to Photo-induced Electron Transfer (PET) as well as specific interactionbetween hemin and the fluorescent protein nanoparticles. The present study provides insights into the design of a cheap, simple and highly sensitive heme/hemin fluorescence biosensor which holds great potential for a broad spectrum of applications.

Biography:

Selma Gogalic hascompletedher master of science and engineeringat the age of 23 years. In january 2013 she started her PhD at the Universityof Vienna/AustrianInstitute of Technologyon “multimodularbiomarkeranalysisworkflow for diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of drug treatment response in bladder cancer”. Part of this work hasbeenpublished in peerreviewedjournals. Currentlysheisalsolecturerat the University of AppliedSciencesin St.Pölten (Digital Healthcare) for measuring- and analyticalmethods in healthcaresystems.

Abstract:

Cancer of the bladder (BCa) is killing thousands of people a year. It is the fourth leading cause of cancer in men (US) and the costs for treatment are rising due to high relapse rate (50% within 2 years). To intervene recurrence of BCa routine cytology and cystoscopy are done, representing the gold standard. Nevertheless these diagnostic tools are expensive, time consuming, invasive and lead to urinary infections in up to 16% of patients. Therefore detection in urine to monitor recurrent BCa is in focus. Commercial urine based tests measure single markers, such asNMP-22 and BTA. However, none of them has proofed good sensitivity and specificity. To overcome the problem of low sensitivity and specificity we have developed a protein microarray based on a unique panel of 10 biomarkers. This BCa chip consists of ARChip Epoxyglass-slidesspotted with captureantibodies to bindthe respective biomarkers. The binding is then detected with a secondary biotinylated antibody and Dy647-streptavidin (simultaneouslywithin5hrs). The chip was validated using samples of 76 patients. ROC curves were generated and the optimal cut-off value determined. Expression of fourbiomarkers(DCN, VEGF, IL-8, EN-2) out of 10wassignificantlydifferentbetweenpatientsamples with recurrent and non-recurrent BCa. Those are actually subject to a multi center study with 1013 patients.

Biography:

Leena Mattsson graduated as a master of science in technology from University of Turku, Finland, in 2013 with the focus of in vitro diagnostics and label technologies. Since February 2014 she is working in Austrian Institute of Technology on her PhD thesis in the field of biosensors and food analytics.

Abstract:

Recent trends in food safety promote the use of biogenic amines as markers for food quality and process hygiene. Biogenic amines are naturally occurring substances especially in fish and fermented food due to bacterial activity, and are mainly produced during storage or processing. Hence there is a need for a rapid, simple and low-cost test system for routine use. We demonstrate various approaches for detection of biogenic amines, starting with histamine: immunoassay on a microarray format, biomimetic recognition and enzymatic detection. Competitive immunoassay on a microarray was established by immobilizing hapten-protein conjugates on a reactive biochip. From various conjugation strategies (carbodiimide, glutaraldehyde cross-linking and coupling to oxidized glycoproteins or using microbial transglutaminase) the carbodiimide chemistry was the most reproducible and stable. The dynamic range of the assay was set to be around the defect action level of histamine (50 µg mL-1). Microarray format will enable multiplexing with other biogenic amines such as putrescine, tyramine and spermine. Diamine-oxidase oxidizes biogenic amines consuming oxygen and producing ammonia and peroxide. The amount of peroxide was measured colorimetrically using HRP with chromogenic substrates. Histamine binding molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) were synthesized by precipitation polymerization. The binding occurred in aqueous solution and was detected using spectrophotometric, gravimetric and fluorescence detection. The binding properties and the size of MIPs were controlled with the change of functional monomers (as methacrylic and acrylic acid) and solvent volume. The different approaches were studied in terms of stability and reproducibility, as well as their applicability for rapid food quality monitoring.

Biography:

Bo Liu ( received Master and Bachelor degree at Technische Universität Dresden, Germany), PhD student at Chemnitz University of Technology in Germany.

Abstract:

The development of electronics such as implantable computing, biosensor and medical equipment demands new energy resources which would be utilized in the human body safely and stably with high energy and capacity densities, which is a major challenge for the present battery technology. Glucose, as a natural product, is produced in a huge quantity every year in the plant. In glucose molecule storage high energy, which could be released by enzymes. Glucose biofuel cell (GBFC) produces electricity through catalyzing glucose by enzyme. GBFC is powered by glucose and enzyme. Glucose exists also in animal fluids, such as human blood( Glucose level 6.3mM and 4.5L blood). That means we can get energy from our blood. The enormous challenge of GBFC is to improve the power density and discharge time. Because enzymes for this reactions are in vivo enzyme and they are sensitive to pH, temperature and some ions. It is challenge to keep the activity of enzymes out of the cell, to reach a high catalysis ability. we designed a new GBFC based on bilayer rolled-up nanomembrane electrode, to ensure a high activity of enzyme and to reach a continuous catalysis of enzyme, to solve the problem in the previous research. we expect a higher power density and ultralong continuous discharge time in the research.

Biography:

Mohammed Marie was born in Iraq, and he finished high school in a small town called Tuz. He joined Baghdad University and obtained bachelor degree in science from physics department.In early 2007, Mohammed received his master degree in materials science which allowed him to become a faculty member in Tikrit University, physics department. The title of his thesis was “Study the effects of thickness and annealing on structural, optical, and electrical properties of cadmium sulfide thin films. Mohammed taught two courses which were electricity and magnetism and digital electronics and published three scientific papers as a first and second author. His first paper as a first author was about “Study the effect of irradiation by Co2 laser on dielectric constant of led sulfidethin films. In 2011, Mohammed promoted to an instructor, and he got a scholarship from Iraqi government to finish his Ph.D. in the United States of America.Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in Microelectronics-Photonics graduated program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Zinc oxide nanorodselectrochemical sensor is his current research work at the electrical engineering department. Zinc oxide can be grown by using sol-gel growth method, and it can be characterized by using scanning electron microscopy, spectrophotometer, and Raman shift. Another area to be investigated is the growth of titanium dioxide nanotubes and compares it with zinc oxide nanotubes. Fabricating and characterizing nanostructureselectrochemical sensors allow Mohammed to combine between materials science, nanotechnology, and biological technology. After finishing his Ph.D., he will go back to his home country to serve at one of the universities as a professor. Mohammed spends his leisure time with his family and reading different articles.

Abstract:

Glucose biosensor based on zinc oxide ZnO nanorods was investigated. A sol – gel technique was used in the fabrication process and the working electrode was deposited on glass coated indium tin oxide with an area 0.3*0.3 cm2. Zinc oxide nanorods were well aligned in a hexagonal structure with variety of diameters between 68 – 116.3 nm as it shown the scanning electron microscopy image. The Raman and absorbance spectroscopy were used to characterize the material. The absorbance optical peak was observed ~ 370 nm corresponding with the band gap of ZnO 3.37 eV and the measured was performed in the range from 300 – 1000 nm. The observed peak in Raman spectrum was at 440 cm-1 matching with the lattice vibration of ZnO. Glucose oxidase GOx and nafion membrane were spin coated with a speed 4000 rotation per minute on top of the nanorods to increase the sensitivity and prevent any undesired chemical reaction. The time response of the fabricated biosensor was 3 sec and the cyclic voltammetry curve illustrates the oxidation reduction process of glucose by GOx and the oxidation peak was around 0.5 V. The obtained sensitivity was 10.911 mA/mM cm2 and the lower limit of detection was 0.22 µM which indicates the high performance of the fabricated ZnO biosensor.

Biography:

Pawan Jolly is a Marie Curie Research fellow at the University of Bath, UK and in my final year of Ph.D. I completed my postdoctoral studies from Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Juelich, Germany and was involved as a student research associate on project related to field effect biosensors. I did my internship at Philips Research, Eindhoven, the Netherlands on opto-magnetic biosensors. I did my bachelors studies from Amity University, Noida, India and did many small projects in renowned research institutes of India. I have published 3 papers in reputed journals and submitted 3 more for review.

Abstract:

The need for early diagnosis of prostate cancer with a high sensitivity and accuracy has led to increasing work on the detection of multiple biomarkers for PCa.We report on the development of novel techniques to detect different biomarkers for PCa using aptamers. In this study various detection methods are being investigated, namely electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance, Open circuit potential and colorimetric techniques. Novel surface modification strategies are also being developed, e.g. impedimetric detection of prostate specific antigen (PSA) with aptamers together with a thiol-terminated sulfo-betaine, which may allow detection of PSA levels down to 0.5 ng/mL. Additionally, in order to increase the sensitivity of PSA aptasensor, a novel assay is being developed where a PSA-binding antibody is used in conjunction with a DNA aptamer to perform a sandwich assay using the colorimetric technique. We have not only developed for quantification of PSA but have also developed novel assay for glycoprofiling studies. Another novel approach that is being developed is synthesis of synthetic receptors using molecularly imprinted polymers integrated with aptamers. As part of the search for enhanced PCa diagnosis, the detection of the biomarker α-methylacyl-CoA racemase (AMACR) is also being investigated using DNA aptamers. AMACR levels are consistently increased in early PCa. The best aptamer sequence for an on-surface detection of the AMACR protein has been identified using surface plasmon resonance (SPR). We have also developed novel detection method for Micro RNAs (miRNAs) by exploiting the inherent charges of nucleic acids and an amplification method with positively charged gold nanoparticles.

Biography:

Sanghamitra is pursuing herdoctoral degree in Electrical Engineeringfrom the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, USA. Her area of expertise includes semiconductor device physics. Current research interest is focused on synthesis of nanomaterials for the fabrication of electrochemical sensors. She is trained on using optoelectronic devices like the scanning electron microscope, spectrophotometer, optical surface profiler, and Ramanmicro spectrometer.In 2013, Sanghamitra completed her Master degree in Semiconductor Photonics Engineering from the University of Sheffield, England. She graduated with her Bachelor degree

Abstract:

This paper describes the fabrication of a glucose sensing biosensor.The working principle is based on the electrochemical reaction taking place between immobilized glucose oxidase adsorbed by the ZnO nanorods, and the electrolyte glucose.Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods were synthesized on indium titanium oxide coated glass substrate using the hydrothermal sol-gel growth technique. Characterization of the ZnO nanorods is performed using the absorption spectroscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. A blue shift is observed in the optical band gap due to increased particle size and density of the ZnO nanorods compared to bulk ZnO.The two-electrode system is employed to measure current for sensing the glucose concentration inside an electrochemical cell. Nafion/GOx/ZnO nanorods/ITO is used as the working electrode, and platinum plate as the reference electrode. Amperometric response for clinical range of blood glucose concentration from 0.25 20 mM is measured at 0.8 V. The response time for the proposed biosensor is identified to be less than 3 s. For a linear range of glucose concentration from 0.25 7.5mMthe analyzed sensitivity is 51.3 µA/cm2 mM-1,and the lower detectionlimit is5 µM. The electrochemical characterization of the biosensor is performed using the cyclic voltammetry method for a voltage range from -0.2 1 V at a scan rate of 0.1 V/s. The achieved results indicate that ZnO nanorods based working electrode demonstrate much higher current response, excellent stability, reusability, and faster response time than previously reported enzymatic electrochemical biosensors.

Biography:

Shengyuan Deng completed his PhD from Nanjing University. He is currently an Assistant Professor at NUST. His research involves molecular diagnosis, biomedical sensing, biomaterials, elecctroluminscent and optoelectronic (bio)transducers. He has published more than 25 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Early growth response protein 1 (EGR1), as a characteristic example of zinc finger proteins, acts as a transcription factor in eukaryotic cells and is involved in mediating protein-protein interactions. Here, a novel electrochemiluminescence (ECL)-based protocol for EGR1 assay was developed with a new eco-friendly emitter: Nanoclay-supported zinc proto-porphyrin IX (ZnPPIX). It could stimulate an intense monochromic ECL irradiation at 644 nm in the aqueous solution with the dissolved oxygen as an endogenous coreactant. This ECL derivation was rationalized via hyphenated spectroscopy and theoretical calculation. To promote water solubility and solid-state immobilization of porphyrins, the lamellar artificial laponite was employed as a nanocarrier owning to its large specific area without black-body effect. The facile exfoliation of laponite produced quality monolayered nanosheets and facilitated the intercalation of ZnPPIX within, resulting in a highly efficient ECL emission. Based on the release of Zn2+ in zinc finger domains of EGR1 upon contact with the ECL-inactive PPIX, which was monitored by circular dichroism and UV absorption, a sensitive Zn2+-selective electrode for the ″signal-on″ detection of EGR1 was prepared with a detection limit down to 5.8 pg mL−1 and a linearity over 6 orders of magnitude. The proposed porphyrin-based ECL system thus infused fresh blood into the traditional family of ECL nanoemitters, showing great promise in bioassays of structural Zn(II) proteins and zinc finger-binding nucleotides.

Biography:

Elisabete Fernandes holds a PhD degrees in Chemical and Biological Engineering from the University of Minho, Portugal (2013). Her PhD research focused on the detection of Salmonella using a Phage-based Biosensor, which was developed in collaboration with the University of Auburn (USA), the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium) and the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL). In 2013 she obtained a Marie Curie Fellowship under the European project: PROSENSE “Cancer Diagnosis: Parallel Sensing of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers”. As a post-doc researcher, she worked at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in the development of a Microfluidic device for blood plasma separation, and at Xeptagen S.p.A in the development of a pre-commercial portable medical analysis system for early cancer detection. She has publications in scientific journals, an international patent and several communications in proceedings of international conferences. Her ambitious goal is to obtain a solid knowledge in the area of biosensors, and apply in the current/urgent challenges.

Abstract:

Cancer, stroke and cardiovascular diseases are excellent examples of large public health problems requiring an early detection system that led scientific communities focus their interests on the biosensing area. Integrated spintronic biochip platforms are being developed for pointofcare (POC) diagnostic/prognostic applications. Here we report a biochip platform comprising 30 spin-valve (SV) sensors separated in six groups of 4 bioactive sensors plus a reference sensor. This platform join all the advantages of a magnetoresistive based biochip sensitivity, fast response, no signal interference with the possibility to perform an integrated sample pretreatment (separation, labelling and amplification) in a miniaturized, portable, lab on a chip electronically assisted platform. This work presents the potential of this technology on different bioanalytical applications reported in several publications (e.g. proteins, pathogens, DNA identification and polymorphism), emphasizing a multiplex detection system that has being performed to detect a panel of biomarkers present in human serum to predict brain ischemia. Our detection strategy is based on multiple “sandwich” immunoassays over the chip area. The biological targets are initially labelled in serum by using antibodyanchored magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) of 250nm and loaded through microfluidics onto an array of SV sensors, where the specific probes (antibodies) are immobilized. Upon probe/target recognition, and a washing step to remove unspecifically bound biomolecules, the final immobilized target is quantified. The full assay takes around 45 minutes. Calibration curves are being established to define the detection limits for each of the six stroke’s biomarkers, and we have reached the minimum detection limit of 4 μg/mL for Fibronectin, which is in accordance with the cutoff value defined for stroke patients. Taking the advantages of the magnetic attraction that allows to concentrate the target over the probe sites, limits of detection in the nanogram range are further expected.

Biography:

Yu Lei is a Castleman Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Connecticut, USA. Dr. Lei obtained his PhD degree in 2004 at the University of California-Riverside in Chemical and Environmental Engineering. His current research combines biotechnology, nanotechnology, and sensing technology, especially as applied to the development of gas sensors, electrochemical sensors, and biosensors.

Abstract:

A (bio)sensor is an analytical device which integrates a chemical or biological recognition element with a physical transducer to generate a measurable electrochemical, optical, acoustical, mechanical, calorimetrical, or electronic signal proportional to the concentration of the analytes. It has been studied intensively and utilized extensively in various applications ranging from public health and environmental monitoring to homeland security and energy-related area. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder and a major world health problem. As stated by International Diabetes Federation, there are over 382 million people worldwide living with diabetes in 2013. Due to the extremely large financial burden caused by diabetes and its serious health complications, the detection of glucose is becoming incredibly important in managing diabetes and reducing its financial costs. This presentation will first outline the challenges for in vitro and in vivo glucose monitoring in battling diabetes, and then discuss our recent research activities for the development of enzymatic and non-enzymatic glucose sensors based on electrochemical and optical methods. Finally, the future research direction for in vivo, long-term glucose monitoring will be laid out and discussed.

Biography:

Siu-Tung Yau has received a PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Cleveland State University. He has experience in nanostructures, protein crystallization, biosensors/bioelectronics and renewable energy.

Abstract:

Conventional methods for the detection of bacteria such as ELISA and PCR require a series of culture-based bacteria amplification steps in order to increase the number of the target in the sample to a detectable level. The amplification process makes conventional methods time- and labor-consuming. Detection of protein biomarkers using ELISA is known to provide unsatisfactory sensitivity. Recently, the author has invented Field-Effect Enzymatic Detection (FEED), a novel bio-sensing technique, in which an external gating voltage VG is used to provide intrinsic amplification of the signal current of an enzymatic biosensor by inducing an interfacial electric field to modulate interfacial charge transfer. The quantum mechanics-based technique was used to obtain the detection limit of molecular analytes on the zepto-molar (10-21M) level. The novel method has been elucidated in several publications. The author has incorporated FEED with the immunosensing technique to demonstrate a novel detection platform for biomarkers and bacteria. The detected biomarkers include CA125, PSA in serum and AMACR (a novel marker for prostate cancer) in serum and urine. The PSA and AMACR detections were performed at the femto gram/mL level. The two detected bacteria are E. coli and Shigella. E. coli was detected in milk and meat juice with detection limits of the order of 10 CFU/mL. Because of the intrinsic amplification provided by FEED, the detection was performed without the culture-based amplification, resulting in a significantly shortened assay time of 1 hr. In these works, FEED provided ultrasensitivity due to its intrinsic amplification whereas the immunosensing technique provided a high degree of substance selectivity. This detection platform sets up a new approach in bio-detection technology, which provides ultra-low detection limit, short assay time and high specificity. It will lead to low-cost detection devices/systems for point-of–care applications. The detection platform will find a range of applications in food safety, public health, environment protection and homeland security.

Biography:

Will be updated shortly...!

Abstract:

Microelectronics play an increasing role in biomedical technology and healthcare delivery and data collection. System optimization for decreased size and power are critical for continued adoption of such technologies, and advanced packaging of microelectronic circuits and sensors will play an expanding role in the ability of patients and healthcare providers to unobtrusively utilize new electronics systems. The semiconductor industry has generally been focused on relatively straightforward integration of similar materials and processes to achieve cost benefits and performance increases.Traditionally, this integration has been microelectronics packaging in the form of wirebonds, bumping, or more recently chip stacking with TSV (Through-Silicon-Via). However, these approaches leaves much to be desired for the integration of disparate materials, process technologies and sensor systems requiring low latency, wide bandwidth and various substrate materials. An alternative to these approaches is “Quilt Packaging” interconnect technology, which delivers monolithic-like electrical performance and enabling sub-micron chip-to-chip alignment accuracy. Quilt Packaging is currently being developed for multiple applications in biomedical applications, specifically MEMs sensors and optical systems integration.

Biography:

Woo Hyoung Lee, P.E. is an assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Construction Engineering at the University of Central Florida. He received his PhD in environmental engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 2009. He has published more than 17 papers in reputed journals and is serving as an editorial board member of the Austin Journal of Biosensors & Bioelectronics. His current research interests include electrochemical environmental microsensors for biofilm and corrosion investigation, electrocoagulation for emulsion breaking, and greywater reuse.

Abstract:

Orthophosphate is used as a corrosion inhibitor in drinking water utilities by forming a microscale passivating surface layer onmetal pipes of distribution systems. However, phosphate consumption by metal pipes and the associated role of phosphate on water chemistry dynamics of metal oxidants remain unclear. A previous cobalt-based potentiometric phosphate microelectrodeshowed oxygen interference, limiting its use in environments where oxygen gradients are found. The limit of detection (LOD) was relatively high for drinking water application.This research presents two enhanced amperometric cobalt-based sensors that lack oxygen interference with an improvedLOD: a cobalt-based microelectrode (~15 µm of tip diameters) and a nano-textured phosphate sensor. For the microelectrode, at an applied potential of -400 mV (vs. Ag/AgCl), the sensor showed an excellent linear response to various phosphate concentrations (10-2 to 10-8 M), with a sensitivity of 18 pA/pCand an improved LOD of 0.31 ppb,and was not affected by the presence of oxygen. A novel Cu-Co based nano-structured sensor was fabricated by pulsed electroplating Cu-Co alloy on the surface of a gold electrode. The amperometric response without oxygen interference of the Cu-Co nano-structured phosphate sensor was found at -250 mV with a sensitivity of 14.7±0.3 mA/log[H2PO4- ]. The enhanced phosphate microelectrode was successfully applied for quantifying and evaluating the phosphate effect on the corrosion kinetics of ductile iron coupons in simulated drinking water systems by measuring phosphate microprofiles. The cobalt-based phosphate sensorswill greatly improve our understanding of phosphate’s impact on drinking water pipelines andvarious water systems.

Biography:

Amir Sanati-Nezhad received his MSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from Amir Kabir University of Technology, Iran and PhD degree from the Optical Bio-Microsystems Laboratory, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Concordia University, Canada. He did two years of postdoctoral research in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the McGill University and Harvard– MIT Health Sciences and Technology for development of microdevices for single cell analysis and tissue engineering. His current research interests include BioMEMS, bioinspired microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip, tissue engineering and single cell analysis. He is currently an assistant professor in the department of Mechanical and Manufacturing with a joint affiliation to Center for Bioengineering Research and Education and Biomedical Engineering program at University of Calgary. He has a research focus on development of organ on chip platform using integrated microfluidics and tissue engineering approaches for disease modeling and drug discovery.

Abstract:

Detection of oxygen concentration is essential to regulate cellular functions in both normal physiology and disease conditions for application in bioassays, tissue engineering and particularly for organ-on-chip platforms that needs long-term and sensitive monitoring. In addition, recent advances in integrated microfluidic systems necessitate the development of flexible and low-cost oxygen sensors that can be rapidly integrated to the system. Amperometric electrochemical and luminescent-based oxygen sensors are known as the two predominant sensing technologies for real-time and sensitive detection of dissolved oxygen in bioreactors. However, amperometric method suffers from difficulty in miniaturization, signal variation at various flow rate and consumption of dissolved oxygen during the sensing process. Luminescent oxygen sensor is expected to be an ideal method for real-time and long-term detection of dissolved oxygen. Here, we developed an optical-based oxygen sensor for long-term and real-time monitoring of dissolved oxygen concentration in a bioreactor. The sensor relies on reduction in luminescent intensity of a sensing dye due to oxygen quenching of the emitting excited electronic state. We chose ruthenium tris(2,2'-dipyridyl) dichloride hexahydrate (RTDP) as the optical sensing element due to its low photobleaching, long lifetime, and linear Stern-Volmer plots. Shadow masking technique was used to pattern the Rt dye layer on a hydrophilic cover slide. A thin layer of PDMS (5 μm) was then coated onto the patterned dye layer to protect the dye from direct contact with the culture media and to inhibit contamination. The channel of top PDMS fluidic layer was aligned with the patterned dye layer and plasma bonded to the cover glass. To excite the dye, a high power light (200 mW) along with a 455 nm bandpass excitation filter were assembled over the microfluidic chip. A 610 nm highpass filter was assembled at the bottom layer to filter the light emitted to the integrated photodiode. The photodiode-based detection method enabled detection of overall fluorescence signal emitted from the oxygen-sensitive dye in form of an electrical current. An electric circuit was integrated to convert the current to a sensible electrical voltage which was read out using the LabView software. The response of the photodiode to the change in fluorescent intensity under different concentrations of oxygen gas and dissolved oxygen in both DI water and culture media was detected. The sensor was found to be more sensitive to the dissolved oxygen in DI water than in media. The electrical circuit, the thickness of the PDMS layer, the amount of dye patterned and the optical detection platform was optimized to make it sensitive enough for organ-on-chip applications. The sensitivity of the sensor was estimated to be 0.67 millivolt per % oxygen. We used the sensor to detect the dissolved oxygen concentration in a HepG2 cell cultured bioreactor for two days.

Biography:

Abstract:

With more efforts in recent years, “nanoprobes” have been widely developed and extensively utilized for the labeling of biomolecules used for the detectionof other various biological species of medical, pharmaceutical and environmental interest. In particular metal nanoparticles (such as AuNPs and AgNPs) and quantum dots have been used for the development of different biosensing platforms based mostly in electrochemical, optical and mass detection. However, the use of asymmetric nobel-metal nanoparticles as thermal labels in biosensing was not explored before the development of HEATSENS®. The present advanced HEATSENS® sensing platform combines the peculiar properties of bioengineered Au-nanoprisms/nanorods of converting the IR light energy in quantifiable thermal energy with high efficiency, with their surface functionalization with detection antibodies. The combination of the use of asymmetric metal-nanomaterial with their oriented biofunctionalization, leads to an improvement of the sensing of the molecule of interest rising specificity and sensitivity up to the atto-molar concentration. Besides, due to the characteristic of converting the IR light to thermal energy, HEATSENS® sensing platform does not present interferences as it could happen using sensing methodologies based on electrochemical or optical detection. More in detail, HEATSENS®sensing platform has been applied to the detection of molecules of interest in the agro-food field, reaching the detection of analytes in complex matrices in the sub-femtomolar concentration in a short time of analysis. The characteristics of HEATSENS®sensing platform will lead to the development of low-cost detection devices/systems for point-of–care applications enable to be used in several other application fields such as public health, environment protection and homeland security.

Biography:

After receiving his Ph.D. for his research in Single-Molecule-Biophysics in Germany and being published in high impact journals such as EMBO, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Nanotechnology, Ali Tinazli was active in Corporate Development at Applied Biosystems (now: Thermo Fisher) and covered the European landscape in biotech and in-vitro diagnostics innovation. In 2008, Dr. Tinazli, joined Sony DADC (part of SONY Corporation) co-started the new biomedical business unit and built the Americas business of Sony DADC BioSciences. As a member of the management team at Sony DADC BioSciences, he is heading the Americas business based out of Cambridge, MA.

Abstract:

Smart Consumables based on polymer materials with nano/microscale or supreme optical features are prerequisites for emerging applications in the biomedical markets as in in-vitro diagnostics. Single molecule detection techniques based on fluorescence read-out methods are a prominent example for a number of commercial products. The need for highly parallel read-out of electrical signals requires the use of CMOS components. Such concepts are required for example in DNA sequencing technologies. Hence, the functional integration of CMOS components in microfluidic, polymer chip architectures is becoming of key importance in a successful product development. The increasing complexity of such new products requires new manufacturing technologies. Sony DADC BioSciences provides in its partnering business a deep know-how in development, manufacturing and supply of polymer-based smart consumables to OEM partners. Specializing in customized mass manufacturing of highly sophisticated consumables, Sony DADC actively applies expertise in innovation to offer state-of-the-art solutions to the biomedical industry.

Biography:

Kostogorova-Beller’s educational background spans a broad range of interdisciplinary materials science, including metallurgical (B.S.), chemical (M.S.), and materials engineering (Ph.D.). She has gained skills in nanomanufacturing under the guidance of well-known expert Prof. Dzenis (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) during her postdoctoral appointment. Currently, she is a Research Scientist at National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University; and leads a research in the areas of sensing skin design for morphing wing concept, nanomaterials, structural health monitoring, and lightning-materials interaction. She has published a number of scientific articles, presented at conferences, and received several research and industry grant awards.

Abstract:

This work explores a novel approach towards the detection of electrical and chemical activity originating from biological nerve tissue using a wireless interface based on NASA SansEC (without electrical connections) Sensing Technology. The concept takes advantage of the unique ability of a resonant spiral to characterize an electromagnetic signature response for material media in proximity to such sensors. During the propagation of action potentials in living axons and neural pathways there is an emergence of a magnetic-field component that can couple to the electromagnetic field of an appropriately tuned SansEC sensor. This coupling produces an observable change to the sensor’s response within its fundamental or harmonic resonance spectra. To demonstrate feasibility of this proposal, system design experimentation was conducted on a non-biological assembly consisting of a transmission-line submerged in an aqueous-solution simulating a nerve surrounded by interstitial fluid. An arbitrary function generator provided the action potential stimulus while a SansEC sensor was placed in proximity to but external the assemblage. Interrogation was accomplished using a near-field loop antenna connected to a network analyzer. The presence of the fluid was detectable by a measurable frequency shift of the sensor resonance. Chemical changes in the fluid using common ionic concentrations of Na+, K+, and Cl- were similarly detectable as smaller frequency shifts. Results also demonstrate that detectable coupling of simulated nerve impulses and electrical activity is possible. This research lays a foundation towards the realization of practical sensing systems utilizing SansEC sensor technology for detecting and quantifying electrochemical activity in living organisms.

Biography:

Will be updated shortly....!

Abstract:

Of late, there has been a growing interest in biotechnology among the researchers. A multi-disciplinary approach is needed to meet the requirement of biotechnology industries. Bioprocesses such as production of fermented foods with the help of micro-organisms, has been known in ancient civilization. Bioprocesses have been developed for large number of commercial products like industrial alcohol, organic solvent, baker’s yeast, etc. and special products like antibiotics, therapeutic proteins and vaccines. Bioprocess operations make use of microbial, animal and plant cells and components of cells such as enzymes, to manufacture new products and to destroy harmful wastes. These processes require effective control techniques due to increased demand on productivity, product quality and environmental responsibility. It is typically so in the case where the biomaterials used in the process are costly and required stringent control over product formation as in animal cell culture. Bioreactor is where the bioprocess operation takes place and its design and controlled operation are very important for several aspects of production like purity, quantity, efficiency, safety, etc. Basically, there are two kinds of bioprocesses; one aerobic and the other anaerobic, depending on whether oxygen is required or not required to carry out the bioprocess operation. There are several types of bioreactors designed and used in the laboratory as well as in large scale industrial applications. Some of these are continuous stirred tank, bubble column, airlift, see-saw and packed bed reactors. As their names indicate, they are meant for aerobic bio-reaction processes. See-saw bioreactor has been developed at Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. Bio-reaction is a slow process and takes days or at least hours, to complete. Nevertheless, there is some heat generation (or absorption) and change in pH value of the bioreactor fluid over the time takes place. Temperature and pH values of the bioreactor fluid are considered as environmental variables and need to be controlled within a tight band for the micro-organisms to survive. Besides chances of contamination, organic in nature, are there and require to be monitored. Dissolved oxygen content of the bioreactor fluid is probably the most important single process variable for maximizing the product yield. The fan speed in the continuous stirred tank reactor or the see-sawing rate in the see-saw bioreactor acts as the corresponding control variable. Thus, a bio-reaction process requires continuous measurement of the dissolved oxygen content, temperature and pH value of the bioreactor fluid. There are other variables which cannot be as easily measured. If a mathematical model of the bio-reaction process could be developed, then one could go for observer based ‘soft sensing’.

Biography:

Will get updated shortly....!

Abstract:

The main possible honey fraud is the addition of various sugar syrups. But there are also other types of fraud, such deception on the geographical and/or botanical origin product. Provide a product of the hive with full authenticity is therefore crucial for the preservation of beekeeping. In this pursuit, a potential technique based Voltammetric Electronic Tongue (V- ET) was used to detect adulterants such as Glucose Syrup (GS) and Saccharose Syrup (SS) in honey. GS and SS were each mixed with authentic honey samples in the following ratios: 2%, 5%, 10% and 20%. Furthermore, V- ET was employed to classify honey samples from different geographical and botanical origins. The data obtained were analyzed by three-pattern recognition techniques: Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Cluster Analysis (CA), and Support Vector Machines (SVMs). As a result, these methods enabled the detection of honey adulterations with sugar syrups at a down adulteration level of 2%; and it was possible to discriminate among thirteen honeys of different geographical origins and seven honeys of different botanical origins based on PCA, while good results were shown by CA and SVMs, too. For this reason, V- ET is a practice and rapid method for application in honey quality assessments, including detection of adulterated samples and classification of geographical/botanical origins.

Biography:

Hussain A Alzaher has pursued his PhD (with honors) from the Ohio-State University in March 2001. He is a full Professor with KFUPM. His recent interests include designs of very low frequency filters for biomedical instrumentation and sensor systems. His research interests include applications of electronic circuit techniques for multi-standards mobile phones (4G and 5G), Bluetooth, WLAN, WiMAX, and Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H). He has owns several US patents. He is the author and co-author of approximately 60 journal papers with more than 900 citations. He also serves as an Editorial Board Member and a reviewer of repute.

Abstract:

Low frequency filters has wide range of applications in biomedical signal processing. It is particularly desired for biopotential acquisition systems to eliminate powerline frequency disturbance from the measured signal using analog notch filters. Such interference concurrently occurs within the same band where biopotential and other physiological signals have most of their energy. Examples include ECG, electroencephalogram (EEG), and electromyogram (EMG) recordings. The work assesses the available solutions. Then, it presents a new notch filter design avoiding common drawbacks and providing improved characteristics. The proposed notch filter incorporates R-2R ladders allow the realization of large time constant in small area. The main features of the presented solution include (i) Integration into a single chip; (ii) Low power consumption in order to reduce amount of heat, decrease battery size and increase battery life and; (iii) High linearity to avoid generating harmonics that could be more dangerous than the powerline interferences. In fact, low noise requirement (to process the weak physiological signals) would be relieved in presence of pre-amplification and would converge to requirement; (iv) Programmability is also incorporated to adjust the filter zero frequency compensating for inaccurate component values, process variations, and temperature changes. The proposed filter design is systematically identified to be the optimum. Main claims are supported with analytical proofs. Also, the operation and results are verified through IC fabrication and experimental results. Experimental results show significant improvement in terms of power consumption and linearity compared with the available solutions. Also, measurement validations using real biomedical signals are provided.

Biography:

Luis Moreno Hagelsieb, born in Guadalajara, México, Chemical Engineer (Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara 1989), MSc in Electrical Engineering (CINVESTAV México 1999). From 1992 to 2001 he worked as a new product introduction, problem solving, line transfers, and product/process design at Motorola Inc in Mexico in semiconductors processing. He finished his PhD and worked as researcher at the microelectronics department Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium until 2012, emphasizing his work on biosensors design and commercialization. He has also experience in radiation and optical sensing (Canberra Semiconductors)

Abstract:

Simple, low cost and low consumption devices are required in medical and agronomical applications and environmental monitoring. Producing a faster response, high response, highly sensitive, highly selective sensor devices for application in bacteria detection have become very critical. Current detection system takes minimum 2 hours (expensive devices) to one week, while some fast detectors can make detections in less than an hour but only when the concentrations of the target is high. In previous works at “Université catholique de Louvain”, high-performance sensors and MEMS with; very low power consumption and broad applications, were developed. In collaboration with its microelectronics laboratory, aluminum oxide interdigitated capacitors (AOIC) have been developed and successfully tested on DNA hybridization and on bacteria and spores detection test as well as on breathing monitoring. All of them have shown comparable results to the state of the art using existing standard biological protocols procedures. The related projects included also the deposit of nanoparticle functionalized nanostructured metal oxides (Al2O3, WO3, SnO2, and HfO2) directly onto an optimized AOIC with the aim of producing a high response, highly sensitive, highly selective sensor devices for application in bacteria and in gas detection (i.e. breathing and environmental). The market trends are as well analyzed. This presentation will cover the complete story about this biosensor, how it was conceived, the applications results, comparative measurement to similar methods as well as its possible future developments.

Biography:

Ahmad Kenaan is 26 years preparing his PhD (last year) in Biophysics and Nanotechnologies at Aix-Marseille university (France). He has published one article during his Master 2 internship and he is preparing at least three articles to publish at the end of his PhD. He has one patent published and one submitted.

Abstract:

The ability to detect ions/molecules of pathological or physiological interest in the body associated with high sensitivity and specificity offers large opportunities for the early diagnostic and treatment of diseases. For example, the case of the Wilson disease, which is induced by the accumulation of copper in tissues, is one of these typical examples. When the disease is diagnosed early enough it can be efficiently treated while it leads to death when the diagnostic is realized at too advanced stages in the disease. Therefore it is crucial to develop a test with unique features such as ease of use, fast and low cost allowing systematic early diagnostic. Our project stands in this framework. Our device is based on field effect transistor (FET) technology and is constituted of an organic lipid monolayer with a thickness of 2.7 nm used as gate dielectric instead of classically used inorganic oxide. Using an ultra-thin dielectric increases the sensitivity of the sensor while allowing using low operating voltage. The specificity of the detection relies on specific chelators that are grafted to the lipids head-groups. Together the lipid monolayer and the chelator constitute the active layer of the device and play a major role in the device performances. We will show how the quality of the monolayer in terms of density and mechanical stability directly impacts its insulating properties and performances. Sensing examples regarding iron III and copper II detection are demonstrated with sensitivities down to the femtomolar range. These are among the best results reported for small ions detection.

Biography:

Jun Chen is pursuing her PhD in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Connecticut, USA. She earned her Bachelor degree in 2011 from Central South University, China. Her research concentrates on biocompatible and injectable biosensors.

Abstract:

Diabetes mellitus is one of the leading incurable diseases which may lead to severe health complications. The key for diabetes management is regular monitoring and maintenance of blood glucose levels in the body. We present herein an optical glucose biosensor for glucose monitoring, where a fluorescent enzymatic hydrogel consisting of fluorescein, polyethylene glycol and glucose oxidase (GOx) is employed. In the presence of GOx, chemical polymerization of poly ethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) and fluorescein o-acrylate (FOA) results in the formation of fluorescent hydrogel with GOx entrapped into the hydrogel matrix. GOx catalyzes oxidation of glucose to gluconic acid that interacts with pH-sensitive fluorescein motif in hydrogel and thus significantly quenches its fluorescence, which was optically measured and correlated with glucose concentration. Furthermore, a fluorescent hydrogel microfiber was also developed as a potentially optical injectable glucose biosensor with improved response time. Both glucose-responsive hydrogel sensor and glucose-responsive hydrogel microfiber show good sensitivity and reproducibility for glucose detection.

Biography:

Abstract:

Most fluorescent biological probes and bio-imaging reagents developed thus far are organic dyes. It is commonly believed that transition metal complexes are highly toxic and thus not suitable for biological applications, especially where living systems are concerned. It has been shown that luminescent transition metal complexes are attractive candidates to probe biomolecules and image live cells and animals, because they show longer-lived emission, higher photo stability and minimal self-quenching. However, the task of generating excited states with long lifetimes has been met with limited success, owing to the ultrafast deactivation of the highly active excited states5. In this talk, we present a design rule that can be used to tune the emission lifetime of a wide range of luminescent organic molecules, based on effective stabilization of triplet excited states through strong coupling in H-aggregated molecules. Based on first-principle design, our data revealed that luminescence lifetimes up to 1.35 s, which are several orders of magnitude longer than those of conventional organic fluorophores, can be realized under ambient conditions. These results outline a fundamental principle to design organic fluorescent molecules with extended lifetimes of excited states, providing a major step forward in expanding the scope of organic phosphorescence applications.

Biography:

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Abstract:

Technical University of Catalonia, Mechanical Engineering Department, Terrassa, Spain Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) integrated microfluidics has been a powerful tool for new developments in analytical chemistry. These microfluidic systems enable the miniaturization, integration and automation of complex biochemical assays through the reduction of reagent use and enabling portability, There are many applications in clinical, veterinary, agricultural, food industry and environmental which analyzing the chemical composition of the samples could be useful, but the inaccessibility to the chemical laboratories is postponing these tests. For instance, in clinics, Point of care (POC) products presented smartness, speed, cost-effectiveness, and portability. These characteristics have motivated many researchers to develop novel instruments based on this technology. Current work proposes a novel combination of electrosmotic and capillary forces to design high throughput blood plasma separation microfluidic chip. Miniaturization of the a human blood test device and separation of red blood cells by low DC voltage in a short time as a point of care device was objective of current work. In principle, the blood plasma separation is based on the filtration and electro-osmotic mechanisms. First, the microchannel is filled by capillary flow and blood plasma is drawn in a micro-filter micro-array (MFMA) while red blood cells accumulate in the entrance of MFMA. The red blood cell clogging is an inevitable and major issue in filtration, which can be modulated by increasing the shear rate on the trapped cells that can sweep them away from the entrance of the filtration channel. For this reason, two different mechanisms were introduced in the design and performance of such a microdevice. In the microdevice design, a constriction has been allocated in the middle of the transport channel for increasing the shear rate on the trapped RBCs, resulting reduction of the RBCs accumulation in the entrance of the separation area. This mechanism delays the RBCs clogging of the separation area entrance at the microdevice performance. As the second mechanism, the reciprocating electro-osmotic flow (EOF) was utilized to control the blood cell movement in the microdevice. Under an applied electric field, the motion of blood cells in a microchannel can be controlled by determining the net force of cells due to both EOF of plasma and electrophoresis of cells. In this strategy, after stabilization of the blood plasma process and RBCs accumulation at the entrance of the separation area; the RBCs accumulation has been broken via reverse the DC electro-osmotic flow direction due switch back of electric field. Due to this method the microdevice was fabricated, which consisted of the PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) main microchannel (Top part) and the glass etched (down part). The lithography and wet chemical etching methods have been used in order to produce glass etched, micro filter micro array (2-μm height). Both parts were bonded via an oxygen plasma treatment. Two Platinum electrodes (Roland Consult-Germany) allocated in the inlet and outlets of the main channel were used for creating the electric field. In order to analysis the electrosmotic flow, the ANSYS Multiphysics (ANSYS Academic Research, 14.5 User’s Guide, ANSYS, Inc. 2014) was applied to generate a numerical model of electric field distribution inside microchannel. To demonstrate the potential as a clinical tool two different types of test are implemented. First a single test for the qualitative detection of the TSH (thyroid-stimulating hormone). The TSH test measures the levels of TSH, a hormone that is produced and released by your pituitary gland. The official "normal" range for the Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH) blood test runs from approximately 0.5 to 4.5/5.0 μIU/ml. In this range, a TSH under 0.5 μIU/ml indicated hyperthyroidism (an overactive thyroid), and a TSH over 5.0 μIU/ml indicated hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid) but since the use of the reversible electroosmotic flow allows an increased extraction of plasma, a blood panel for measuring two indicators in the diagnosis of myocardial infarction (MI): Cardiac Troponin (cTnI) and Creatine Kinase MB (CK-MB) have also been implemented by hybridizing the proposed microfluidic circuit with lateral flow immune chromatography technologies. cTnI is a protein found in the cardiac muscle that is released into the blood. 4-6 hours after the onset of pain. CK-MB is an enzyme found in the cardiac muscle too, but that is released 3-8 hours after the onset of symptoms, but it lasts up to 72 hours while cTnI can become elevated up to 10 days. A Combination of both measurements in the same test increases the efficiency of the diagnosis. Using this microfluidic device, substantial separated blood plasma was observed for voltages lower than 50 V. Consequently 1μL human blood plasma 99% purity where, filled with collecting channel and plasma reservoirs from 10 μL human blood. The capability of the presented microdevice for separating and gathering blood plasma pave the way for portable blood analysis in biomedical application as a point of care device or cell separation in different samples.

Biography:

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Abstract:

The toxicity detection using real testing on human or animal is no longer an appropriate technique. Development of new technical methods for detecting toxic materials is highly demanded. A variety of non-animal methods are available for toxicity detection consists of in-vitro analysis of living cells and tissue cultures, microarray technology and computerized modeling. These methods can provide more reliable, faster and cheaper results. Various cells such as bacterial, mammalian and plant cells have been for the application in pharmacology, toxicology and environmental measurements. In this paper, we present a novel microfluidic-based whole cell biosensor to enable detection of environmental toxic substances through dynamics of oscillatory growth behavior of a whole plant cell in a high-throughput platform. Pollen tube as the fastest tip growing plant cells was used to demonstrate the performance of this plant-cell biosensor due to its extremely sensitivity to the external signals and environmental chemicals. The microfluidic platform was designed from the previously enhanced microfluidic device devised for chemical treatment of tip growing cells. The pollen grains were injected into the chip, conducted through the main chamber towards the growth microchannels and trapped at the entrance of microchannels. The individual pollen tubes grow along the microchannels and were subjected to chemical treatment. The growth of pollen tubes was observed under microscope before and after introducing the toxic medium (Aluminium). While for higher Al concentrations, the change of growth rate and the burst of pollen tube was useful to detect the Al concentration, for lower concentration of Al the dynamic behavior of pollen tube was exploited. The oscillatory dynamic growth includes both fundamental and higher modes of oscillation frequencies associated with growth. The effect of stress from toxic substance on variation of the fundamental and higher modes of dynamic oscillation of growth rate was used to detect the concentration of Al in the media. The experimental results show that for 20μM Al concentration and below, the drop of growth rate was not simply detected, though the variation or disruption of higher mode oscillation frequency in 20μM was simply detectable. The advanced waveform techniques of Fast Fourier transform (FFT) and window filtering techniques were used to identify the primary and secondary peak oscillation frequencies. For a sample pollen tube tested under 20μM Al concentration, the results of FFT analysis. When the cell is subjected to toxic environment, the behavior of the pollen tube was altered at entire range of dynamic growth and the power associated with change of all frequencies was used as a criterion of dynamic response in order to quantify the cell behavior under different concentration of toxic Al. The total power of its corresponding Fourier Transform integrated across all of its frequency components was calculated before and after treatment with Al toxic, each, in time series of 100s. The degree of toxicity (τ) was then defined as the ratio of spectral power of normal growth of pollen tube and spectral power of tube after treatment with Al toxic.

Biography:

Yu HongYu has been with the Department of EEE at SUSTC since 2011. He received a Bachelors of Engineering from Tsinghua University, he completed his Masters in Applied Science degree from University of Toronto and a PhD degree from National University of Singapore. He was at IMEC (Leuven Belgium) as a senior researcher in the Si process and device technology division. His current major research interests cover sustainable electronic devices, including low-power IC/memory devices, bio-electronics and green photonics/solar cell devices. He has authored and co-authored about 300 publications in the top tied international journals and conferences, with a total over 2000 citations (SCI) and with an H index of 28. He has been invited to give talks for more than 20 international conferences and also invited to write 4 book chapters. He also published and has been granted with 20 USA/EU patents. He is an IET fellow, and has received many awards.

Abstract:

As a potential biochemical sensing platform, leaky surface acoustic wave (LSAW) biosensor consists of a special orientation of a piezoelectric crystal and shows superb sensitivity, speed and reliability. In this work, a novel label-free LSAW biosensor for detecting hepatitis B surface antibody (HBsAb) is fabricated. The sensing area of LSAW is coated with 500nm thick gold membrane on a 100MHz LiTaO3 piezoelectric single crystal. Then the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) is immobilized on the surface of a gold electrode. The phase shift of LSAW is monitored to detect HBsAb, which increases the mass loading of LSAW by binding to immobilized HBsAg. A reference LSAW device is immobilized with bovine serum albumin (BSA) to block binding of HBsAb. This sensor shows great specificity and sensitivity in detecting HBsAb.

Biography:

Jürgen Van Erps has completed his Ph.D in 2008 at the age of 28 from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium, and postdoctoral studies from the University of Sydney, Australia. Since 2013, he is professor at VUB. He authored or co-authored 41 SCI-stated papers and more than 90 papers in international conference proceedings. He is co-inventor of 3 patents. He serves as a reviewer for several international journals. He is a senior member of the SPIE, and member the OSA and the IEEE Photonics Society.

Abstract:

Although the development of labs-on-chips has witnessed tremendous progress in recent years, their applications have been limited to singular laboratory prototypes without widespread routine use in clinical or high-throughput applications. Most present-day lab-on-a-chip implementations rely on bulk optical instrumentation external to the microfluidic chip for read-out, monitoring or analysis. This implies that miniaturized portable systems are difficult to realize and there is a large demand for efficient, small and robust optical detection units to create photonics-enhanced labs-on-chips. With the development of polymer-based microfabrication techniques supported by replication technologies such as hot embossing or injection moulding, polymer microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices hold tremendous opportunities for mass production. This paves the way towards low-cost disposable devices. In addition, polymers offer the advantage of material versatility, since a wide range of polymers is available with characteristics that are in accordance with the requirements for a specific application, such as good optical transparency, biocompatibility, desired chemical or mechanical properties, and suitability for system integration through embedding of components. We show our technology supply chain and our recent progress in the design, fabrication and proof-of-concept demonstration of integrated miniaturized photonics-enhanced biosensors for absorbance and fluorescence measurements as well as Raman spectroscopy. All systems combine high sensitivity with a relatively simple layout to ensure their manufacturability and robustness. In addition, the units can be reconfigured for sensing various molecules at different wavelengths paving the way towards multi-functional, low-cost, portable, robust, and, ultimately, disposable lab-on-a-chip systems that can be used in the field and for point-of-care diagnostic applications.

Biography:

Yen Nee Tan received her PhD degree in Molecular Engineering of the Biological and Chemical Systems from the Singapore-MIT Alliance, National University of Singapore in 2008. She is currently leading the Bioinspired Materials Laboratory at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR. She has filed 8 patents (3 granted and 1 licensed) and published several scientific papers in reputed journals (e.g., JACS, Anal Chem. etc.) in the area of bioassays development. She also serves as an editorial board member of the Austin Journal of Biosensors & Bioelectronics. Her recent awards include the Materials Research Contribution Award (2014), L’Oreal for Women in Science Singapore, Finalist (2013), Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors’ Award (2012), and AsiaNANO Young Researcher Award (2010).

Abstract:

Nobel metal nanoparticles (NPs) such as gold and silver, in the same size domain (<100 nm) as the biomolecules, are well suited for biosensing applications due to their unique optical properties arising from the localized surface plasmon resonance. We have developed three nanoplasmonic sensing to interrogate estrogen receptor (ER)-DNA interactions- an important transcriptional activity related to breast cancer biology. These assays exploit the interparticle distance-dependent plasmonic coupling and/or plasmon-induced fluorescent quenching as sensing elements. The first assay uses the citrate-anions capped AuNPs to probe the sequence-specific binding interactions of ER to various DNA sequences and to determine their binding stoichiometry without using labels, tedious sample preparation, and sophisticated instrumentation. This assay was further designed to couple with the aggregation-induced emission luminogen to allow dual optical signal (i.e., colorimetric and fluorescent) detection in a single experiment. The second assay was founded on the de-novo design of segmented ER-response DNA element onto two sets of metal NPs conjugates with complementary short sticky ends, where ER serves as a stabilizer to retard the particle aggregation induced by base-pairing and charge screening. This protein binding-stabilization strategy is generic and reduces the risk of getting false positive results. The third assay was designed based on the concept of traditional DNA footprinting using DNase with the combinatorial use of DNA-modified AuNPs to enable fast colorimetric detection without hazardous radioactive-labeling and tedious assessment of cleavage pattern. This versatile AuNPs-based enzymatic assay can be used to monitor nucleases activity, screen nucleases inhibitor, detect DNA-binding proteins and determine DNA sequence specificity in a fast, sensitive and convenient way.

Biography:

Rai Sachindra Prasad after obtaining his PhD Degree (Electrical Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India, has published several papers in International journals and IEEE Int Conferences. He has worked as professor in several technical institutes in India and has widely travelled in Europe and USA. He is a reviewer of IEEE and other reputed journals and is a member of several editorial boards of journals. After retirement in 2013 his main research interests are in imaging techniques of human bio-field- specifically in invisible physical body.

Abstract:

The fact that thought is physical force has been well recognized but hardly translated in the sense of its transfer from one individual to another. In the present world of chaos and disorder with yawning gaps between right and wrong thinking individuals, if it is possible to transfer the right thoughts to replace the wrong ones, it would indeed be a great achievement in the present situation of the world. With advances in bio-field imaging techniques already achieved, an instrumentation scheme may be designed and implemented to realize this thought transfer phenomenon. This is bound to be extremely useful when properly used. The advancements already made in recording the nerve impulses in the brain, in Aura extraction through the human bio-field measurements using GDV/EPI techniques, and the latest research finding proving the phenomenon of an invisible physical body of human beings, it is conceivable that this may be used in society’s transformation. So far only clinical aspects in instrumentation for ‘brain-to-brain transfer’ have been explored which are of no worth in bringing a permanent change for peace and tranquillity in the present world. Presently, recording of EEG relies on capturing thought waves in the so called meditation mode, i.e. closing eyes in rest position in half-sleep conditions, while completely ignoring the roles played by pineal body, pituitary gland and ‘association’ areas. In this paper, the ideal procedure of meditation is defined and then the concepts of possible design aspects of instrumentation for brain–to-brain transfer are discussed.

Biography:

NaHyun Cho is a PhD candidate in Materials Science and Engineering at Stony Brook University in New York. She previously earned a BS in Engineering Chemistry and a ME in Materials Science and Engineering from at Stony Brook University. She spent two and half years in the field as a research engineer with LG Electronics in Seoul, South Korea, working in their crystalline solar cell R&D Center. Her current area of research is ordered DNA fragmentation on surfaces for next-generation sequencing. In order to further develop her research focus, she is a visiting student at both Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.

Abstract:

Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology starts with 200 ~ 300 base pairs of random small DNA fragments that are cut from whole genomic DNA. For instance, human being’s genomic DNA is 3.2 X 109 base pairs, so assuming that the human DNA are cut into 300 base pairs fragments, there are 1.1X 107 fragments to sequence. Furthermore, in order to have statistically accurate sequencing data, massive parallel sequencing is required. It means that every genomic region of DNA fragments should be sequenced several times to reduce erroneous reads. It requires massive labor and time due to the randomness of DNA fragmentation in liquid solution. However, if it is possible to keep the order of cut DNA fragments instead of randomly cutting, the assembly of a contiguous sequence will be significantly simplified. In this study, we have researched non-random cutting and ordering of DNA on deposited and aligned polymer surfaces instead of typical liquid-based random DNA fragmentation in molecular biology. To have a controlled cutting process of DNA while keeping the ordering, we lineally anchored DNA molecules on a PMMA (Poly methyl Methacrylate) surface, so the DNA molecules are stationary. We cut the stretched DNA molecules on the surface with enzyme solution using a patterned PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) stamp having micron-sized features. Since the stamp has a grating structure, it enables the enzyme solution selectively to touch the anchored DNA molecules. Currently, we have studied the digestion mechanism of enzyme for the DNA molecules on the PMMA surface. We have used DNase I enzyme and NEBNext® dsDNA Fragmentase® from New England Biolabs because they nonspecifically cleave DNA molecules. Also, we have tried restriction enzymes such as XbaI and PvuI to understand the enzyme digestion mechanism on surface. For sample preparation, we use silicon wafers as substrates and spin cast PMMA solutions to cover the substrate with a thin film to anchor DNA molecules linearly. PDMS stamps were patterned using soft -lithography technology in Brookhaven National Lab, New York. For cutting the DNA on the surface, the stamp is coated with enzyme solution and placed in contact with the DNA molecules. After cutting, the DNA molecules and PMMA film are dissolved with organic solvent and the DNA is extracted using liquid-liquid separation (Organic phase: Aqueous phase). Confocal microscopy and Atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to image the DNA molecules on the PMMA surface. Gel electrophoresis was conducted to confirm the distribution of the DNA fragments.

Biography:

Hasan Aldewachi did her undergraduate degree in the University of Mosul (Iraq),He then went to England for a Master degree in Pharmaceutical Analysis at the University of Sheffield Hallam. He published his Master Dissertation thesis in the Int. J. Pharm. Sci. Rev. Res. He is now doing a PHD at the University of the Sheffield Hallam under Dr. Philip Gardiner's supervision. His PHD project involves developing rapid and novel enzyme detection biosensors towards point of-care.

Abstract:

DPP IV is a transmembrane serine protease enzyme whose expression is up regulated in a variety of diseases therefore has been identified as potential diagnostic or prognostic marker for various tumors, immunological, inflammatory, neuroendocrine and viral diseases. Recently, DPP-IV enzyme has been recognized as a novel target for type II diabetes treatment where the enzyme is involved in the degradation of incretins. A variety of assays have been introduced for the determination of DPP-IV enzyme activity using chromogenic and fluorogenic substrates, nevertheless these assays either lack the required sensitivity especially in inhibited enzyme samples or they not suitable for in vivo analysis because of their low water solubility combined with time consuming sample preparation. In this study, novel strategies based on exploiting the high extinction coefficient of GNPs are investigated in order to develop fast, specific and reliable enzymatic assay. The presence of DPP IV could be detected by colorimetric response of peptide capped GNPs (P-GNPS) that could be monitored by a UV-Visible spectrophotometer or even the naked eyes. Very low enzyme activity can be measured using this approach. The P-GNPs when subjected to DPP IV showed excellent selectivity compared to different physiological serum proteins (lysozyme, thrombin, trypsin and human serum albumin). Furthermore, our new design could also be applied to the assay of DPP IV inhibition since the DPP IV inhibitors can suppress its hydrolytic action, and thus, this new methodology can be easily adapted to high throughput screening of DPP IV inhibitors.

Biography:

Nageswara Lalam is a PhD researcher in school of engineering and environmental sciences, Northumbria University, United Kingdom. He received MS in wireless communication systems engineering from University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom. He is working on distributed fibre optic sensor systems towards environmental monitoring. His current research interests includes, distributed optical sensors, stimulated Brillouin scattering and nonlinear optics.

Abstract:

Leakage of dangerous toxic acids from pipelines, flow lines, reactors, storages and oil wells is an severe impact on public. In fact, leakages of chemicals can be at the origin of toxic releases, which can have severe consequences on the installation as well as on the environment and nearby inhabitants. Industries are prompted to take all possible measures to reduce the occurrence of such catastrophic events by implementing additional technical safety barriers in order to prevent any potential danger. Pipeline leakages may have different origins, such as corrosion, fatigue, shocks, abnormal temperatures, extreme pressures, or excessive deformations caused by ground movement. In the case of liquefied or pressurized gases, leakages can be detected by the material deformation and rapid drop of temperature due to the evaporation of the released liquid and its evaporation gases or due to gas expansion. Brillouin scattering based distributed optical fibre sensor (DOFS) have unique features that have no match compared to other conventional sensing techniques. A single mode fibre cable is installed along the whole length of the pipeline then connected to a measurement system. DOFS system has an ability to detect the both temperature and micro-strain simultaneously with 1m spatial resolution and response time is less than 10s. As a result, we can prevent leakages from toxic acids pipelines before failure occurs.

Biography:

Namik Akkilic completed his PhD at the Leiden University, Netherlandsas a Marie Curie Early Stage Researcher. The research was aimed at the control of single electron transfer events of a metalloprotein immobilized on a surface. Currently, he holds a postdoctoral position at the Twente University, Netherlands and works on responsive polymers as on-off switch for biosensor applications. He has published 7 papers and 1 book chapter to date.

Abstract:

Many investigations over the years have shown that the interaction of surface grafted polymer brushes with biomolecules like proteins, receptors has a great importance for a significant number of applications. Here we present on the design of a smart polymer brush/biomolecule architectures, produced via the “grafting to” approach. For this, individual protein molecules, labelled with the fluorophore ATTO488, were covalently attached to a single pH responsive poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) brush. Subsequently, total internal fluorescence microscopy (TIRF) was used to monitor intensity changes over time, when switching between low and high pH. We show that the fluorescence intensity of a single protein molecule shows an on-off switching behavior, controlled by the solution pH. Fluorescence intensity is quenched (off state) by 85% when the PAA chains are stretched at basic pH yet we observe an enhancement in the fluorescence (on state) when the polymer chains collapse at basic pH. Furthermore, we use the local density of optical states (LDOS) effect to predict the location of a molecule that is covalently (or electrostatically) attached to a polymer brush. Fluorescence lifetime was 3.5 ns when the polymer was stretched away from the grafting interface at basic pH, whereas the lifetime is quenched to just 2 ns at acidic pH. Moreover, we support our experimental results with numerical self-consistent field (nSCF) theory. Biomolecules can be either in (on state) or outside (off state) of the brush, and by fine-tuning the brush parameters and particle size it becomes possible to use this system as a biosensor.

Biography:

Ying Wan has completed her PhD at the age of 26 years from Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics in Chinese Academy of Science. After that, she continued her Postdoctoral studies from Toronto University School of Pharmacy. She is now a research scientist in Nanjing University of Science and Technology. She has published more than 20 papers in reputed journals.

Abstract:

Electrochemical DNA (E-DNA) sensors have great potential in point-of-care diagnosis because of their ability to produce a simple, accurate and inexpensive platform for DNA sensing. However, it is difficult to detect extremely low abundance of DNA biomarkers in clinical samples. Thus different signal amplification methods have been developed to improve the sensitivity of E-DNA sensors. In this paper, we developed an ultrasensitive E-DNA sensor based on the signal amplification efficiency of nanoprobe and surface-initiated enzymatic polymerization (SIEP). In this method, nanoprobe was fabricated by gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) modified with reporter probe DNA. Coupling with the nanoprobe, capture probe, which was immobilized on gold electrode, would form a “sandwich” with target DNA. Upon hybridization, nanoprobe could be bound to the electrode and then subjected to terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdT) catalyzed elongation of DNA strand at its 3′ terminal. During the terminal extension reaction, biotin labels are incorporated into the SIEP-generated long single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). Then specific binding of avidin modified – horseradish peroxidase (HRP) to the biotin label would lead to an enzyme turnover-based signal transduction. As there are hundreds of DNA probes on the nanoprobe, one hybridization event would generate hundreds of long ssDNA, resulting in tens of thousands of HRP catalyzed reduction of hydrogen peroxide. By employing nanoprobe and TdT, we demonstrated that our E-DNA sensor has a detection limit of 10 fM and excellent differentiation ability for even single mismatches.

Biography:

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Abstract:

Nucleic acid biosensors (DNA biosensor) are recently gaining much intention in the field of biomedical science for point-of-care applications. Nucleic acid biosensing concepts are based on DNA hybridization, in which two complementary single stranded DNA hybridized and generate useful hybridization signals. DNA based biosensors has been reported for the detection of various pathogenic diseases like tuberculosis, meningitis and cholera. Cholera is an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of contaminated food or water. The Gram-negative bacterium Vibrio cholerae is responsible for the infection. The conventional diagnosis of cholera is based on microscopic examination, immunological test, biochemical test, and PCR. These tests are expensive, non-confirmatory, less sensitive and time consuming. Nucleic acid sequences are getting importance in nano-biosensing techniques for the detection of various diseases since the sequence has capacity to represent information, which directs the functions of a living thing. With this importance, DNA sequences have become indispensable for various applications in biological research such as DNA sequencing and clinical diagnostic etc. It is expected that nucleic acid biosensors may offer great advantages due to inherent sensitivity, selectivity and comparatively low detection cost. We report results of the studies related to the development of nucleic acid sensor based on magnesium oxides (MgO) nanoparticles, deposited via electrophoretic deposition (EPD) onto indium tin oxide (ITO) coated glass electrode followed by immobilizing complementary oligoneucleotide probe (ssDNA/MgO/ITO) with a terminal 5′-phosphate group and after hybridization with V. cholerae (O1) genomic DNA (dsDNA/MgO/ITO). The fabrication of electrodes has been confirmed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results of electrochemical studies such as electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) suggest that MgO/ITO electrode provides an increased effective surface area for the immobilization of DNA, thus, resulting in an improved electron transport between medium and electrode. The ssDNA/ MgO/ITO bioelectrode can detect the target DNA in the range of 100 to 500 ng/μL using hybridization technique in the presence of methylene blue as an electro-active indicator. The hybridization time is restricted to allow 5 min at 25oC. This DNA bioelectrode is stable for about 4 months when stored at 4°C.

Biography:

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Abstract:

Tamarisk usage as a new group of lignocelluloses material to produce fermentable sugars in bio ethanol process was studied. The overall aim of this work was to establish the optimum condition for acid hydrolysis of this new material and a mathematical model predicting glucose release as a function of operation variable. Sulfuric acid concentration in the range of 20 to 60%(w/w), process temperature between 60 to 95oC, hydrolysis time from 120 to 240 min and solid content 5,10,15%(w/w) were used as hydrolysis conditions. HPLC was used to analysis of the product. This analysis indicated that glucose was the main fermentable sugar and was increase with time, temperature and solid content and acid concentration was a parabola influence in glucose production. The process was modeled by a quadratic equation. Curve study and model were found that 42% acid concentration, 15 % solid content and 90oC were optimum condition.