
NSF Org: |
CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems |
Recipient: |
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Initial Amendment Date: | June 9, 2017 |
Latest Amendment Date: | March 25, 2021 |
Award Number: | 1706597 |
Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
Program Manager: |
Aleksandr Simonian
asimonia@nsf.gov (703)292-2191 CBET Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems ENG Directorate for Engineering |
Start Date: | July 1, 2017 |
End Date: | June 30, 2022 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $249,198.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $249,198.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
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History of Investigator: |
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Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
4150 ADMINISTRATION DR BERRIEN SPRINGS MI US 49104-1400 (269)471-3100 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
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Primary Place of Performance: |
4260 Admin Dr. Berrien Springs MI US 49104-0370 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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Parent UEI: |
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NSF Program(s): | BIOSENS-Biosensing |
Primary Program Source: |
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Program Reference Code(s): |
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Program Element Code(s): |
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Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.041 |
ABSTRACT
Mobile technology is becoming the hub of future biosensor development. The proposed work attempts to develop an Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) sensor utilizing existing mobile (smartphone) technology, transforming what was traditionally an expensive and bulky biosensor technology into a portable and affordable one. ECL sensors work by a simple principle - when a small electric voltage is applied to an ECL chemical, the chemical emits light. The ECL combined with mobile technology enables minimal instrumentation and mobile app analysis. Our goal is to make this new sensor platform equivalent not only in performance to that of existing expensive biosensors, but also more affordable and for many different biosensor needs.
The goal of this project is to advance the traditional electrochemiluminescence (ECL) immunosensor instrumentation to make it more portable and inexpensive using the latest mobile technologies. When an ECL reaction is triggered by the application of electric potential, the emitted light is in a visible spectrum, providing a great potential to satisfy the requirements for an ultra-sensitive immunoassay and in an ultra-compact format. Successful development of the proposed ECL biosensor will significantly enhance biosensor instrumentation by maximizing the practicality of mobile technologies while providing the sensitivity realized by expensive and specialized instruments. There have been attempts to develop ECL sensor with cell phone detectors but they have not been successful in detecting biomarkers at clinically relevant concentrations. The key effort of the proposed work are enhancing the inherently low ECL signal to a level that is detectable with consumer cameras and developing minimal instrumentation for efficient ECL-based detection. The research will focus on design as well as development of protocols with co-reactants, microfluidic channels on screen-printed-electrodes, electric circuits to trigger reactions, and a mobile app to control the circuit, imaging, and data analysis. The ECL immunosensor can be used for diagnosis of disease biomarkers. Its inexpensive and portable nature will make it an ideal platform to use in disaster rescue and recovery situations. The project will be performed at an undergraduate predominant institute maximizing educational aspects and emphasizing the community outreach.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Electrochemiluminescence is a physical phenomenon where a simple voltage application trigger visible light emission, enabling a compact instrumentation and removing noise from light contamination. We developed an ECL sensor apparatus to be compact and portable taking advantage of recent advance of mobile devices and its wireless connections. The mobile phone-based ECL sensor consisted of a phone cameras, disposable screen printed electrodes, a compact potentiostat, a light-tight 3D printed housing, and mobile apps. The sensor was developed to obtain video or time series pictures and amperogram signals simultaneously. Dopamine was detected as a model target sample with the linear detection range from 1 -50 microM. The sensor also was developed into detecting other phenolic compounds such as vanillic acid and p-courmaric acid reaching target sensing ranges in the practical samples. One of the most important aspect of the sensor development was data analysis. As the sensor is aimed to be assembled for low cost setting, it was critical to have a robust data analysis. We have developed classical mechanistic model and also data-driven machine learning based methodologies. The machine learning approaches provided a practical solution to a realistic low-cost sensor setting where sensor-to-sensor variations, nonlinearity, data fluctuation becomes a challenge in predicting analyte concentrations accurately. The effort offers new opportunities for the development of inexpensive analytical methods and compact sensors using the ubiquitous mobile device technologies.
Last Modified: 12/13/2022
Modified by: Hyun Kwon
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