Katherine Liddell
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
UROP Fellowship: Community College Summer Fellowship Program
Washtenaw Community College
Research Mentor(s): Young Geun Park, PhD
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Presentation Date: Tuesday, July 28, 2020 | Session 3 | Presenter: 4
Authors: Katherine Liddell
Abstract
Biosensors allowing detecting one or more specific biological components (analytes) has played a crucial role in human healthcare and disease control. Currently, since many diseases are related to molecular or viral or microbial interactions in the human body, most biosensors have been developed to detect an analyte accurately to the atomic/micron /nanoscale. Furthermore, by incorporating nanomaterials related to electronics, optics, and surface chemistry, biosensors allow enhancing the detection performances of speed, sensitivity, and selectivity on such a small scale. Even though various detection mechanisms for many different analytes have been developed, there is no well-organized review and outline guiding a clear understanding of biosensors.
Here, in this project, I conduct a scientific literature review and outline of introductory biology and chemistry materials, as well as scientific journals, to help an understanding of nano biosensors. In terms of general detection principle, nano biosensors have a bio-recognition component that interacts with the analyte. This interaction signals a transducer, which converts the chemical signal into an electrical signal. An electronic component recognizes the electrical signal and transmits it into a display. Unlike conventional medical analysis approaches using a large volume of the biological sample, the integration of nanomaterials into a biosensor allows for the detection of smaller amounts of analyte in a sample in real-time with high sensitivity. In addition, because nano biosensors are portable, inexpensive, and easy to use devices, it has been applied in the medical field (e.g. early cancer detection or monitoring of patients), biodefense (e.g. the study and prevention of diseases), and in the food industry (e.g. monitoring and processing of food). As a specific example, recently, nano biosensors are used for point of care (POC) study of the coronavirus (COVID-19) effect on the human body for the development of a vaccine.
I expect that nano biosensors will have limitless applications in the future as nano biosensors will allow us to further advance our knowledge of human healthcare and disease control.
Google Slide Presentation
Presentation Script
Research Disciplines
Engineering
