Abstract

A Digital Nanotechnology For Lung Cancer Screening and Long COVID

Alain Wuethrich, Group leader / researcher, The University of Queensland

Profiling circulating biomarkers has potential to deliver minimally invasive approaches for lung cancer screening and to better understand emerging diseases such as long COVID. Nanotechnology and microfluidics are well positioned to deliver innovative diagnostic systems that enable highly sensitive and multiplex analysis of circulating biomarkers. This presentation will describe a digital nanotechnology based on plasmonic barcodes and a nanostructured array for counting of single extracellular vehicles (EVs) and cytokines. We show the capability of phenotyping EVs in plasma of patients with benign and malignant lung nodules as a potential non-invasive approach for lung cancer screening. By digitally profiling trace-level cytokines at concentrations multiple orders of magnitude lower than detectable by conventional assays, we will further describe how the digital nanotechnology provided a new window into long COVID and could serve as diagnostic for this emerging disease.