Innovative Detection of Biomarkers Based on Chemiluminescent Nanoparticles and a Lensless Optical Sensor

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Biosensing Technologies

Background:

• Accurate disease diagnosis and monitoring require sensitive identification and quantification of biomarkers.
• Traditional biomarker detection methods are often time-consuming and costly.
• Lateral flow tests (LFTs) offer rapid, low-cost biomarker detection, with potential for enhanced sensitivity via chemiluminescence biosensing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and characterize a novel biosensor system integrating LFTs with lensless chemiluminescence biosensing.
• To evaluate the system's performance for rapid and sensitive biomarker detection.

Main Methods:

• Development of a lateral flow test strip using gold nanoparticles functionalized with antibodies and labeled with horseradish peroxidase.
• Integration of the LFT strip with a lensless biosensor featuring four Silicon Photomultipliers (SiPM).
• Utilization of microfluidics for efficient liquid handling.

Main Results:

• The developed biosensor system demonstrated rapid readout capabilities (under 5 minutes).
• The system requires minimal sample preparation.
• Using C-reactive protein as a model biomarker, a limit of detection of approximately 0.8 pM was achieved with gold nanoparticles.

Conclusions:

• The integrated LFT and lensless biosensor system offers a promising platform for fast and sensitive detection of human biomarkers.
• This technology has potential applications in point-of-care diagnostics and disease management.