Gold nanoparticle films for universal biosensors

The current biosensing marker for healthcare and environmental applications is dominated by laboratory instrumentation that is bulky, time consuming, and expensive and requires well-equipped laboratories and skilled personnel.

Many essential applications, such as disease diagnostics (e.g. hepatitis B, tuberculosis, HIV) and water quality monitoring (e.g. pathogens, heavy metals, toxins), are often neglected due to economic reasons, causing millions of deaths globally.The most significant challenges facing biosensors are their fabrication and instrumentation costs, insensitivity, and low-throughput detection.

One technique capable of tackling these challenges is localised surface plasmon resonance which has demonstrated the potential to deliver cost-effective hand-held point-of-care devices with rapid, multi-analyte detection.

To date, this potential has been limited by the available techniques for fabricating feasible nanoscale sensors.I have chosen a world-recognized research centre, the Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology in Germany, as my host institution to develop my MSCA under the supervision of an excellent mentor in nanobiophotonics, where I will be trained in advanced techniques in nanophotonics.

The acquired skills in combination with my own knowledge will perfectly match for developing a novel nanofabrication technique to deliver affordable and versatile sensors based on a 2D array of well-ordered and dense gold nanoparticles - a unique blend of interdisciplinary methods with the potential to rival lithography techniques but at a fraction of their costs.

Precise control over nanostructured dimensions will allow me to tune the sensor for biosensing applications.

Microarray biofunctionalisation of the sensor will demonstrate multiplexed detection of pathogens (DNA), disease biomarkers (proteins), and heavy metals and will pave the way for improved healthcare and environmental screening, where test availability, speed, and cost play a decisive role.