Online Monitoring: Electrochemiluminescence based Gated Assay

To find new and better ways to detect and monitor contamination of water, food and the environment as early as possible directly atthe site of impact is one of the most pressing tasks for researchers today. Early detection of and strategic monitoring to tracecontamination of water is therefore crucial.

This emphasizes the need for sensitive, robust, portable and affordable (especially forlow-income countries) analysis tools that can report directly at site on the concentration of a target contaminant.

Detectingcontamination early means that these small, mobile analytical devices have to indicate analytes at very low concentrations withreliable uncertainty and accuracy, to avoid false positives and foster acceptance of such tools by relevant user groups like publicemployees.

In this project, I will address this need relying on the integration of microfluidics, gated delivery systems, magnetic beadsand electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detection.

ECL is a detection method that operates against a zero background and gateddelivery systems exhibit inherent features of signal amplification.

A combination of both strategies with the versatile handling andminiaturization capabilities of magnetic beads and microfluidics promises to yield user-friendly, affordable and robust analyticaldevices with unprecedented performance for the reliable quantification of analytes at ultra-trace levels (ppb and below) directly onsiteat the point-of-need.

By matching my expertise in electrochemistry and microfluidics with the host’s expertise in gated deliverysystems, magnetic beads, luminescence spectroscopy and device integration, I have the unique opportunity to receive training invarious other disciplines, including metrology, that allow me to broaden my field of knowledge and to better shape the outline ofmy future career as a high-level (bio)analytical scientist.