Utilising graphene for biosensing

From rapid, early diagnosis of disease to detection of biological and chemical agents in homeland security, food analysis and environmental monitoring, biosensor technologies are a front-line tool in the modern arsenal of point-of-need analytical systems. In the ever expanding area of biosensor development towards faster, cheaper, more accurate, more reliable sensor systems there has been an expanding interest in the exploitation of nanomaterials and, in particular, the employment of carbon nanotubes as transduction elements. Recently the emergence of the nanomaterial graphene, which is effectively an unrolled nanotube, has become an attractive alternative material as it has a number of significant potential advantages for exploitation in the biosensor arena. Due to the atomic thickness planar nature of graphene, sensors based on its unique properties have the potential to be extremely sensitive. Studies into the engineering/biological interface of graphene sensors thus open up the possibilities for a range of novel and exciting studies.Through the use of this flexible funding programme, the team will utilise the unique properties of graphene to investigate a series of feasibility studies directed towards biomedical applications. The project will kick off with an initial series of meetings between engineers and research groups in the Faculty of Medical Sciences to establish the project ideas exploiting graphene for biosensing. Preliminary discussions have already yielded a range of areas to be explored including point-of-care diagnostic systems and drug development. A variety of sensors will be fabricated on each wafer, thereby maximising the number of feasibility studies that may be explored during this project. Midway through the project and after initial results are obtained, each study will look to receive input from healthcare professionals, so further development of the technology may be targeted to current clinical needs. It is the ultimate aim of the project to assemble multidisciplinary teams to develop sensors demonstrating a step change in technology for clinical applications and move initial demonstrated concepts into prototype sensor systems.

The proposed research will impact in the following domains: Policy Through the initial series of meetings (and the two following internal dissemination events), the management team would not only look to generate a initiate a series of experimental studies but also aim to establish widening interdisciplinary practises within the University. Researcher development Additional to the RAs directly employed on this project, all personnel involved with the projects would gain multidisciplinary research experience due to the very nature of the research activities proposed. Society Projects would address general healthcare diagnostics in areas such as drug discovery and point of care therapeutics and so in the long term, would look to increase the effectiveness of public health services and increase the quality of life in society as a whole. Although these are high risk feasibility studies, an indication of the possibilities of the technology would be gained by the first review meeting (month 8). Input from healthcare professionals and the Health Protection Agency will be sort at this review meeting so that these initial studies can then be targeted towards assessing suitability towards real clinical needs. Economy The ultimate goal of taking sensors from the lab into usable systems require extended multidisciplinary teams and the team would look at addressing this at the second dissemination event (month 16) with invites to academic, clinical and industrial stakeholders. Projects such as this are best suited to development of added value high end technology products and so it would be the intention to attract follow-on funding to develop prototype demonstrator systems and ultimately see direct financial benefits through licensing / spin out. In addition to these direct financial benefits, a step change in sensitivity of sensor technology would see early diagnosis of infection and disease with cost savings in prevention and cure. The technology platforms being develop are generic and therefore target applications could additional see future developments towards environmental monitoring and bio-detection for the defence industry, each with the associated economic benefits for this technology development. Knowledge dissemination The team would aim to publish in high impact journals (provisionally this would be aimed at Nano Letters) and conferences (provisionally aimed at IEEE MEMS).