The goal is to develop a novel platform that incorporates an optical transmission sensing scheme with an automated size-dependent sample delivery system in a single nanoscale unit. The results will lead to a chip-based, point-of-care (POC) technology for early diagnosis of cardiovascular disease (CVD).
This project will investigate a plasmonic nano-optofluidic (PNOF) platform to demonstrate its utility and versatility of in-situ cell separation and delivery of small molecules to the sensing area, and discriminative, sensitive quantitation of protein biomarkers in whole blood. Unique metal film structures will be used as plasmonic waveguides to tune the spectrum that enables ultrasensitive and high signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio detection. The array will be utilized to integrate with a microfluidic network to realize in-situ separation of cells and size-exclusive delivery biomarkers. The researchers will then adopt the immunoassay format and demonstrate delivery and discrimination of selected biomarkers in human blood.
