Grant: Alliance Grants

The world is facing massive challenges in detecting and responding to naturally-occurring highly virulent pathogens that the public may encounter and to the purposeful weaponization of biological agents. One critical gap is that present-day pathogen sensors are designed to detect only a single known pathogen (e.g., E coli in meat), which is inadequate against exposure to new genetically engineered pathogens, especially in military settings where unknown pathogens may be purposefully deployed. In recent years, our team has been developing a novel platform technology aimed at the rapid detection of pathogens, e.g., bacteria, fungi and viruses. This technology relies on a sensitive and selective electrochemical sensor design involving attachment of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) to various self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), tethered to gold electrodes. TLRs are bio-recognition elements from the innate immune system that selectively recognize classes of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs). While our current sensors respond rapidly and selectively to these PAMPs, further down-selection of the electrodes (to lower cost by using carbon vs. gold) and the binding groups (common thiols vs more stable carbenes) that attach the SAMs to the electrode is needed. Further, the sensor dynamic response to variable PAMP concentrations must be determined to assess performance in fluctuating PAMP concentrations and the potential for sensor reuse. The project will also involve the construction of a commercializable platform, e.g., sensing strips for one-time flow assay purposes or reusable multiplexed chips for analyzing both environmental and clinical samples. The partner organizations supporting this project are Defence Research and Development Canada, Suffield Research Centre (DRDC SRC) and CardiAI Inc., a successful Calgary-based Canadian SME that is developing diagnostic devices for the electrochemical screening of clinical samples for heart failure biomarkers and indicators of infections. This project, which will train up to 20 students, is therefore of utmost strategic importance to Canada.