Chemical Biology and Quantum Dots for Portable Liver Fibrosis Diagnostics

To develop new rapid, portable blood tests for liver fibrosis, based on NICE/FDA approved blood biomarkers.

The project has two foci: (1) Creating new and improved binding and labelling reagents for key fibrosis biomarkers to increase performance (partners Profs A Jamieson at Glasgow & J Köhnke at Hannover) to create new peptide or protein binders and develop these into assays, based on luminescent quantum dots, for the biomarkers. (2) Shrinking and simplifying existing and new assays into microfluidic devices - with Dr A Nightingale and Prof X Niu at Southampton, working to create a bench-top device, alongside clinical partners in Glasgow and London, to run new and existing assays away from the laboratory.