The wide availability of a low-cost, robust, and multimode biosensor detection capability will spur accelerated development of sensing applications in myriad settings where laboratory capabilities are lacking, or where current closed platforms are aimed at only a very specific commercial market. Smartphone-based detection systems are expected to find applications in situations where laboratory facilities are not available such as point-of-care analysis in the home, clinic, farm, or remote locations. The integrated approach to be developed in the proposed work would enable mobile sensing applications that include diagnosis of disease through sensing of specific biomarker proteins (cardiac, cancer, and others), specific identification of infectious disease (viral or bacterial, as performed by PCR), sensing of allergens in food, food/drug manufacturing quality control, sensing of counterfeit drugs, breath analysis, and environmental monitoring of air/water/soil resources
Intellectual Description: The goal of this EAGER proposal is to utilize integrated semiconductor laser diodes and LEDs as illumination sources within the smartphone, and a thin film waveguide/grating coupler to bring light to the sample. The system will operate simply by placing the sample-under-test over the analysis opening, while a custom software application controls all other aspects of the measurement. The resulting system will be capable of performing UV/Visible wavelength absorption spectroscopy, UV/Visible wavelength reflectance spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, and label-free optical biosensor measurements. The platform will use custom microfluidic cartridges designed to perform sample preparation, liquid mixing, and other steps of cell/biomolecular assays that can be developed by the entire ecosystem of mobile application developers.
