New technology provides the way forwards to boots sensitive bioelectronic diagnostics. This relates to an emerging medical field, based on molecules in the human body sending faint biochemical signals when health issues arise (a form of constant communication).
Some of these molecules provide a biochemical fingerprint that could indicate how a wound is healing, whether or not a cancer treatment is working or that a virus has invaded the body.
Since many chemical sensors produce weak signals, medical professionals often cannot decipher these signals without removing a sample (blood, sweat, saliva) and running it through laboratory equipment. This adds time and complexity.
This issue of rapid testing has led scientists to consider that if they are able to sense these signals in real time with high sensitivity, then it should be possible for healthcare personnel to be able to recognise health problems faster and even monitor disease as it progresses.
With the application of the new technology, Northwestern University scientists have shown they can boost these signals by 1,000 times. The new approach paves way for sensing signals in real-time in the body without sending blood or saliva samples to a laboratory. The new approach makes signals easier to detect without complex and bulky electronics.
Through boosting the amplification of weak biochemical signals, the new technology promises improvements to on-site diagnostics and disease monitoring. This could include wearable technologies or implants that have a small footprint.
To demonstrate the technology, the researchers equipped an amplifying component onto a traditional electrode-based sensor and developed an electrochemical transistor-based sensor with new architecture that can sense and amplify the weak biochemical signal.
Here, the electrode is used to sense a signal and the nearby transistor is dedicated to amplifying the signal. The device uses a built-in, thin-film reference electrode to make the amplified signals more stable and reliable.
In designing the appropriate device, there is normally a a trade-off between high sensitivity and device miniaturization.
To test out the technology, the scientists successfully measured the concentration of certain cytokines (a type of signalling protein) near a wound, researchers can assess how quickly a wound is healing, if there is a new infection or whether or not other medical interventions are required.
The development appears in the journal Nature Communications, titled “Organic electrochemical transistors as on-site signal amplifier for electrochemical aptamer-based sensing.”
