The goal of the SensApp FET-Open project is to develop an innovative super-sensor that will be able to detect Alzheimer’s disease (AD) biomarkers (β-amyloid, Tau and pTAU) in peripheral blood. Considering that nowadays an accurate diagnosis of AD requires the highly invasive withdrawal and analysis of cerebrospinal fluid, SensApp will represent a breakthrough in the field of AD diagnosis thanks to the ability to detect the early stage of the disease by a simple blood collection. We call Droplet-Split-and-Stack (DSS) the new technology that will emerge from SensApp. The achievement of SensApp goal is enabled by the interdisciplinary cooperation between different research institutions and one company involved in the key fields of the project, Vrije Universiteit Brussels, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, University of Linz, Ginolis Ltd, IRCCS Centre “Bonino Pulejo”, under the coordination of CNR-Institute of Applied Sciences and Intelligent Systems. This communication will illustrate the progress of the activities.
The effective detection of low-concentrated molecules in small volumes represents a significant challenge in many sectors such as biomedicine, safety, and pollution. Here, we show an easy way to dispense liquid droplets from few μl volume (0.2-0.5 μl) of a mother drop, used as reservoir, by using a pyro-electrohydro-dynamic jetting (p-jet) dispenser. This system is proposed for multi-purpose applications such as printing viscous fluids and as a biosensor system. The p-jet system is based on the pyroelectric effect of polar dielectric crystals such as lithium niobate (LN). The electric field generated by the pyroelectric effect acts electro-hydrodynamically on the sample of liquid, allowing the deposition of small volumes. The p-jet approach allows to obtain the dispensing of drops of very small volumes (up to tenths of a picoliter) avoiding the use of syringes and nozzles generally used in standard technologies. The reliability of the technique as a biosensor is demonstrated both in the case of oligonucleotides and in a sample of clinical interest, namely gliadin. The results show the possibility of detecting these biomolecules even when they are low abundant, i.e. down to attomolar. The results show a marked improvement in the detection limit (LOD) when compared with the conventional technique (ELISA). Moreover, it has been presented the possibility of using the p-jet as a useful tool in the detection of biomarkers, present in the blood but currently not detectable with conventional techniques and related to neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer.
A novel method for sensing low abundant lactose in small sample volumes is proposed. It is based on a pyroelectrodynamic jet (p-jet) system able to concentrate the lactose molecules onto a solid amine support for easy and rapid detection through a fluorescence measurement. The p-jet produces droplets with sub-picoliter volumes accumulated onto a microscale area of the solid support in order to reduce the diffusion limits typically occurring in standard well-based assays. A highly reproducible linear response for lactose was obtained between 2 pM/μL and 10 pM/μL. The great advantage of the technique is the ability to concentrate the molecules directly onto the solid support ready for the readout measurement by a standard fluorescence scanner. No time-consuming and expensive sample treatments are needed. The proposed method is rapid, suitable for repeated use providing a built-in quality assurance.
Bacteria are often associated with the insurgence of diseases and many efforts have been made to develop methods for accurate identification of bacteria in food for industry and new generation smart farms. On the other hand, there is a wide category of “good” bacteria that are used in food and pharmaceutic industry. In particular, probiotics are microbial species that have been demonstrated to confer benefits to health, acting against pathologies such as obesity, diabetes, etc. Probiotics have to maintain their viability during their transit through the gastro-intestinal apparatus in order to act to enhance the immune system. The use of alginate microcapsules is one of the most common methods of preservation, applicable to several biological matrices, including probiotics. Here we use bio-speckle decorrelation as a tool for the rapid assessment of microencapsulation effectiveness. Although speckles are often thought as a source of noise, these can be fruitfully used to increase the sensitivity of coherent imaging sensors. Thus, it is possible to characterize bacteria motion and to use it as a contrast agent for applications in food science and industry. Through bio-speckle decorrelation, we detect the presence of bacteria in food without any chemical analysis. Moreover, we quantify the shelf-time of alginate-encapsulated Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus plantarum probiotic bacteria and their survival rate under simulated gastro-intestinal conditions.
Probiotics are microbial species that have been demonstrated to confer benefits to health. In recent years, the use of probiotics in food and health has increased enormously. A sufficient concentration of probiotics in the intestine acts against pathologies such as obesity, diabetes, etc. However, if probiotics are not able to maintain their viability during their transit through the gastro-intestinal apparatus, they cannot act to enhance the immune system. Hence, protection and preservation of probiotics are essential to both food industry and in pharmaceutics. Microencapsulation is one of the most common methods of preservation, applicable to several biological matrices, including probiotics. Whenever food products or pharmaceutical formulations contain microencapsulated probiotics, it is important to quantify the effectiveness of micro-encapsulation as a microbial protection system over the time, e.g. during the shelf life of a functional product containing encapsulated probiotics, conserved in the supermarket, and during gastro-intestinal transit. Here we use bio-speckle decorrelation as a tool for the rapid assessment of microencapsulation effectiveness. Although speckles are often thought as a noise to get rid of, they represent a precious source of information, increasing the sensitivity of image sensors based on coherent illumination. Such information is exploitable to characterize bacterial dynamics in a fast and simple way suitable for applications in food science and industry. Through bio-speckle decorrelation, we quantify the shelf-time of alginate-encapsulated Lactobacillus rhamnosus and Lactobacillus plantarum probiotic bacteria and their survival rate under simulated gastro-intestinal conditions.
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