SensImperial 2018
SensImperial is a team competing in Sensus 2018, its university is the Imperial College of London. For Sensus 2018, Team SensImperial investigated the possibilities for creating a biosensor which is able to measure the concentration of Vancomycin. The full TRD can be found via this link
Method
Competitive Lateral Flow Assay
Molecular Recognition
The detection method uses a large complex with a gold nanoparticle at the centre and vancomyocin and biotin on the outside, which have a bright red colour. When vancomyocin is present, this large complex is displaced from its original position on an vancomyocin antibody and binds to a line of streptavidin. This change in colour intensity signals the amount of vancomyocin in the serum
Physical Transduction
The change in colour is detected by an app running a neural network, which is taught to detect the change in colour and convert it into a particular concentration of vancomyocin.
Cartridge
The plasma is pipetted onto the membrane, which then travels up the membrane, where it picks up the large complex and encounters the two lines of antibodies and streptavidin.
Reader Instrument
The reader is the mobile phone with the app, where the concentration is measured and saved