Prof. Brian T. Cunningham University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The objective is to integrate two novel photonics-based label-free detection modalities into the internal surface of plastic tubing. The first detection method is a plastic-based distributed feedback laser biosensor that is capable of high sensitivity affinity-based detection of analytes such as disease biomarkers and bacterial pathogens. The second detection method utilizes the resonant electric fields of a photonic crystal surface to enhance the detection sensitivity of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy.
The approach is to develop an active photonic resonator that generates its own narrowband light output that has no stringent alignment requirements for coupling to its excitation source, and thus elegantly solves an important problem that currently inhibits high Q-factor passive resonator biosensors from implementation upon curved surfaces such as medical tubing. The photonic crystal surface-enhaced Raman approach will increase detection sensitivity by an additional factor of 30-50x, enabling detection of analytes at lower concentrations, shorter integration times, and lower laser power than is currently possible. Demonstration for applications relevant for infused intravenous drug delivery, urinary catheter metabolite monitoring, and early bacterial pathogen detection in intravenous lines will be performed.
Development of the capabilities described in this project will have far-reaching implications for patient care in hospitals for a broad range of clinical treatments that utilize sterile plastic tubing for drug delivery and urinary catheterization. The proposal describes an education plan with impact upon graduate student research, undergraduate research, undergraduate classroom/laboratory learning, and teaching biosensing/photonics concepts to a University-based all-girls middle school.
The project goal was to create an approach for integrating sensors into the internal surfaces of biomedical tubing used for intravenous drug delivery and urinary catheters. The flexible sensors contain special nanostructured features to enable the sensor to capture light from a laser or LED that illuminates the tubing from outside, and the sensors are fabricated from inexpensive plastic materials. In the project, we demonstrated an approach for detecting and differentiating 10 intravenously delivered pain medications and opioids that are typically associated with medication delivery errors. The sensors are also capable of sensing urinary metabolites that can monitor kidney function in real time by integrating the sensors within tubing used for urinary catheterization, where we demonstrated the ability to sense changes in creatinine levels in real time at clinically relevant concentrations. The sensing approach was demonstrated to be sensitive enough to detect all the drugs at concentrations well below those used in the clinic. Several companies have expressed interest in licensing the patents generated by this work for integrating sensing into "smart" intravenous infusion pumps used at the bedside and for drug compounding systems that are used by hospitals to create customized IV bags that combine drugs, nutrition, antibiotics, and ions.
