The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is wide reaching. It can potentially change the way drug discovery research is conducted, improve clinical diagnostic analysis, improve the monitoring of drinking water and waste water, as well as improve the monitoring of food/beverage supply chains. This photonic sensor technology is a platform for detecting many different types of chemicals and bio-agents. Modifying the surface readily makes a sensor specialized for each chemical or biomolecule. The cost of the sensor is low when mass-produced, yet the sensor boasts extremely high sensitivity compared to other, competing sensing methods.
This I-Corps project is based on whispering gallery mode (WGM) sensor technology. The WGM sensor's sensitivity exceeds that the current state-of-the-art sensing methods such as surface plasmon resonance provides among different label-free detection techniques. Existing designs of the WGM instrument typically require a bulky alignment mechanism. The recent development of WGM dip sensor with a pre-assembled sensor head has streamlined the sensor design into essentially a thin, single-ended fiber device, and eliminated the need of alignment. The I-Corps project may lead to a new design of the sensor and the supporting instrument, a new architecture of the sensing method, and other areas of application.
