Grant: Collaborative Research and Development Grants

This project aims to advance an optical biosensor platform. This objective will be met, initially through the design and modelling of concepts for a benchtop interrogator and for biosensor chips, then through implementation of the interrogator using commercially-available components, custom-machined parts, and software designed and written for interrogator control, data acquisition and processing, and of the biosensor chips by applying wafer-scale microfabrication processes using standard semiconductor fabrication tools in a cleanroom setting. Operation of the interrogator and biosensor chips will be demonstrated by application to biodetection problems relevant to drug discovery and point-of-care diagnostics, initially in clean fluids, then in complex fluids. Protocols for direct detection, sandwich assays, competitive assays, and kinetics extraction will be developed for application to biomolecular interaction analysis (BIA). Protocols for the detection of diseases, such as heart disease and thyroid deficiency, will be developed, based on the detection of soluble biomarkers in patient blood samples (serum, plasma). Upon completion of the project, the outcomes, consisting of the benchtop interrogator, biosensor chips, detection protocols, and biodetection results will be transferred to Canadian industry. The benefits to Canadian industry include the provision of a new high-performance benchtop biodetection platform in demonstrator form, suitable to drug discovery and disease detection applications. The biodetection protocols and results validating the platform, will be disseminated to the scientific community, particularly within the biosensors discipline. The HQP formed through this project will develop skills that are highly valued within industry and academia. They will interact with the industrial partner over the duration of the project and ultimately participate in technology transfer to industry.