This project involves the development of biosensor based detection methods for the determination of several important markers of excessive alcohol consumption: alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), y-glutamyltransferase (GGT), and carbohydrate deficient transferrin (CDT). Novel sensor design permits efficient operation where interferences due to dissolved oxygen and other spurious current measurements due to common interferents (e.g., ascorbate, urate) are minimized. During the Phase II program, this sensor technology will be optimized in order to provide rapid measurements requiring only small sample volumes. These optimized sensors will be extremely useful to researchers in fields related to alcoholism and alcohol abuse, and could serve an important role in the daily clinical practice of differential diagnostics of alcohol-related organ damage and in follow-up studies of alcoholism treatment programs.
