Abstract

Point of Care Diagnostics – The Opportunity For Real-Time POC Using Microfluidic Sensors and Biosensors

Martyn Boutelle, Professor of Biomedical Sensors Engineering, Imperial College London

The concentration of biomarker molecules can give important information about the health of a person as they are dynamically challenged by acute illness or for example during clinical treatment. Our view is that to do such monitoring effectively ideally requires moment-by-moment measurement of blood or tissue concentrations as this allows treatments to be guided in a personalized way by such data. We have been developing a range of sensing and biosensing solutions for the invasive, minimally invasive, and non-invasive monitoring of people in health care situations. Microfluidics provide a valuable means of clinical sampling and robust quantification of measured signals. I will describe the key challenges in the development of such integrated sensing devices and  present our recent data obtained during models of cardiac arrest and from the neonatal intensive care unit.