Research

Implantable sensors for tissue oxygen monitoring

Oxygen is essential for healthy operation of the human body. However, under conditions of disease or injury, the balance of oxygen delivery and consumption within tissues can be impaired. Such impairment is usually invisible, causing important medical events to be missed and preventing the delivery of optimal therapy. To address this need, we are developing a miniature implantable sensor for tissue oxygenation. The sensor is designed to be used in a variety of medical applications including cancer radiotherapy and post-operative patient monitoring, and it is likely to find future applications in other clinical areas. It operates using electrochemical oxygen detection, with microfabricated components to minimise invasiveness.

Multiplexed readout for cell-free synthetic biological systems

Synthetic biology seeks to apply engineering principles to biological systems, giving them new and useful functions. One of its most exciting recent applications is in clinical diagnostics, detecting analytes including pathogenic nucleic acids and antiviral antibodies. This promises great analytical flexibility and fast development, while producing devices that remain sensitive, inexpensive, and quantitative. Current synthetic biology readouts typically use optical techniques requiring bulky and complex laboratory equipment. We are engineering a novel electronic readout platform that avoids these limitations, and designing a complementary family of reporter proteins to use with the platform and transduce biological signals.

Silicon nanowire arrays for ultra-high sensitivity diagnostics

Conventional bioelectronic devices have a limited sensitivity due to a fundamental mismatch between the device size scale (micrometres) and the biochemical size scale (nanometres). We are developing silicon nanowire (SiNW) devices that bridge this gap, enabling ultrasensitive biomarker detection. SiNW can sense the tiny electric fields around biomolecules including proteins and nucleic acids. The devices are fabricated using cutting-edge thermal scanning probe lithography methods, available locally at the Scottish Microelectronics Centre. We are also exploring methods for selective array functionalisation to create devices that can simultaneously detect multiple biomarkers.