Abstract

Cost Effective Nanobiosensors For Diagnostics: Towards Democratization of Evidence-based Health Care

Arben Merkoçi, ICREA Professor And Group Leader, Catalan Institute of Nanoscience And Nanotechnology

Nowadays health system is requesting more and more efficient diagnostics devices to afford everyday needs all over the world. The demand for point of care devices (POCs) for use at doctor offices or by people in need in any place in the world is increased due to various clinical scenarios including overall emergencies like pandemics. The development of such devices is strongly related to new materials and technologies being nanomaterials and nanotechnology of special role. We study how new nanomaterials such as nanoparticles or graphene can be integrated into simple sensing platforms thanks to their advantageous properties. Beside plastic platforms physical, chemical and mechanical properties of cellulose in both micro and nanofiber-based networks combined with their abundance in nature or easy to prepare and control procedures are making these materials of great interest while looking for cost-efficient and green alternatives for device production technologies. These devices should be REASSURED: Real-time connectivity, Ease of specimen  collection, Affordable, Sensitive, Specific, User-friendly, Rapid, Robust, Equipment-free, Delivered to those who need it. How to design simple plastic/paper-based biosensor architectures including wearables through printing or stamping? How to tune their analytical performance upon demand? How one can couple nanomaterials with paper/plastics and what is the benefit?   Which are the perspectives to link these simple platforms and detection technologies with mobile communication? I will try to give responses to these questions through various interesting applications related to protein, DNA and even bacteria and viruses with extreme interest for clinical emergency applications. The developed platforms and related technologies are related to ubiquitous methods that would be quite important for democratising diagnosis and improving the evidence-based healthcare coverage all over the world.