Paper and flexible substrates as materials for biosensing platforms to detect multiple biotargets

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Biosensors
• Point-of-Care Diagnostics

Background:

• Current point-of-care (POC) diagnostics often require complex infrastructure and expensive reagents, limiting their use in resource-constrained settings.
• Paper and flexible material-based platforms offer potential for POC diagnostics but face challenges in integrating diverse detection modalities.
• There is a significant need for sensitive, robust, portable, and inexpensive biosensing platforms for disease diagnosis and monitoring.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate new, widely applicable electrical and optical sensing mechanisms for biosensing platforms.
• To integrate cellulose paper and flexible polyester films with various detection modalities for enhanced biosensing capabilities.
• To address the limitations of current paper and flexible material-based platforms for POC diagnostic applications.

Main Methods:

• Integration of cellulose paper and flexible polyester films as diagnostic biosensing materials.
• Development and validation of novel electrical and optical sensing mechanisms utilizing antibodies and peptides.
• Detection of multiple biotargets including Human Immunodeficiency Virus-1, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, and CD4(+) T lymphocytes.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated selective and accurate capture and detection of viruses, bacteria, and cells.
• Achieved clinically relevant detection and sensitivity using fingerprick volumes of biological specimens (whole blood, plasma, peritoneal dialysis effluent).
• Successfully integrated multiple detection modalities with paper and flexible polyester film platforms.

Conclusions:

• The developed biosensing platforms offer a promising solution for sensitive, robust, portable, and inexpensive POC diagnostics.
• These platforms can be applied to detect a wide range of biotargets across various biological specimens.
• The integrated sensing mechanisms overcome technical challenges, enabling broad applications in resource-constrained settings.