PI: Moni K. Datta
Co-PI: Prashant Kumta and Robert Kormos
Title: Novel Aptamer-Based Biosensor Platforms for Detection of Cardiomyopathy Conditions
Description: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) including cardiomyopathy conditions are the primary cause of death worldwide, causing 31% of all deaths (17.5 million deaths/year), and will only continue to grow in prominence contributing to greater healthcare costs with rise in risk factors such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. Unfortunately, CVDs are clinically silent until serious complications arise, and current diagnostic tools for CVD detection are unreliable, time consuming, and expensive requiring specialized instrumentation and trained personnel making CVD screening difficult. Hence, there is a need for a point-of-care device for rapid screening and monitoring of cardiomyopathy conditions and progression to decrease incidence, deaths, and healthcare costs.
The objective of this study is to develop a CVD screening and monitoring tool by simplifying the current biochemical marker sensing and detection in the bloodstream. The novel biosensor comprises generating vertically aligned platinum wires in an epoxy substrate functionalized with robust aptamers to create a multi-array impedimetric biosensor for rapid detection of cardiac markers from few drops of blood. The impedimetric sensing platform is label-free, simplistic and amenable for conversion to a portable handheld device. The use of aptamers enhances specificity, selectivity and precision including the potential for regeneration, thereby creating a reusable biosensor. The proposed studies will open new avenues for early cardiomyopathy disease/condition detection and treatment serving as an opportunity for even in-house point of care detection.
Source: Department of Defense CDMRP
Term: 18 months
Amount: $300,000