| Summary: | An important research area in medicine is molecular diagnostics of cancers and infectious diseases, which can be diagnosed, managed and treated more effectively with genetic information. We have developed an integrated sample to answer bacterial detection platform combining a simple, universal bacterial lysis approach and sensitive nanomaterial electrochemical biosensors. Lysis is rapid and effective at releasing intercellular nucleic acid targets. The platform was directly challenged with unpurified lysates and successful at determining the presence of clinically relevant concentrations within 30min from sample to answer.
Another important aspect of biosensor development is the development of cheap and efficient methods for manufacturing nanostructured microelectrodes. Previously, we have used costly silicon wafers for fabrication. Here we explored alternate inexpensive materials for fabrication including printed circuit boards, plastics and glass. We show that plain borosilicate glass is effective for templated bottom-up fabrication, with comparable performance to expensive silicon based nanostructured microelectrodes.
Current state-of-the-art readout of many biomarkers is hampered by serially addressing arrays of low cost biosensors, without the use of high cost active electronics. Here we have developed a new concept, solution-based electrochemical circuits, which makes highly multiplexed sensing feasible on the surface of low-cost, glass chips. This method utilizes the idea that physical separation of liquid on an insulator can result in electrochemical isolation. Using this we can reduce the number of outputs to 2√n, where n would be the number of serially connected sensors. We use urinary tract infections as a model system and prove that we can accurately detect species and antimicrobial resistance in multiplexed formats at clinically relevant concentrations.
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