Cork scientists are planning to develop technology which will function as a tiny laboratory and that will be similar in size to a credit card, writes BETH O'DONOGHUE
RESEARCHERS in Cork have just been given the go-ahead to develop technologies which will function as miniature laboratories and be used to test how drugs affect cells.
These complete lab-on-chip systems, with nano-structured sensors and up to 24 individual compartments, will be used to monitor cells with greater sensitivity than ever before.
The nano-structured sensors are being designed for use in clinical or pharmaceutical labs. In the long term, they have many potential applications, from food safety tests to cosmetics safety testing, according to Dr Eric Moore, head of the Integrated Biosensor Technologies Team at Tyndall National Institute.
This four-year project ties in with previous research carried out by Moore and other scientists at Tyndall. (Moore has been awarded funding for the project under the SFI Research Frontiers programme.)
Currently this type of sensing can be done using larger individual chips. “At the moment we have individual micro chips – mini structured electrodes. The smallest are about 10 microns (10 millionths of a metre or two red blood cells) in width,” says Moore.
The new fabrication facilities at Tyndall will hopefully enable the researchers to make sensors of a size between 100-200nm, 100 times smaller than those currently in use.
The nano-structured biosensors will increase the sensitivity of these types of tests and give clinicians greater understanding of how exactly cells are affected by different substances, says Moore.
A lawn of cells will be grown in the compartments of the devices, covering the sensors. When drugs and other substances are introduced to the compartments, the effects on the cells can then be measured. A number of designs are being tested to find the arrangement that allows the best growth of cells, he says.
The sensors will measure cell responses using both visual and electrical techniques. “We’re trying to set a standard here, as a way forward, to get the best of both worlds by using transparent electrodes, allowing electrical measurements as well as optical measurement,” says Moore.
The increased accuracy of these devices should also reduce the costs associated with repeated testing. As an electrical current is passed through an area containing cells, it is impeded by the presence of the cells. Electric Cell-substrate Impedance Sensing (ECIS) measures the change in impedance if the drugs begin to alter the cell structure.
These changes will help scientists understand how cells are affected by varying amounts of different substances. Researchers are interested in changes in cell shape, size, structure and form, says Moore.
Moving from an individual chip for each test to a system where many tests are carried out on the same chip will also reduce costs of production. “The support will be the size of a credit card. I say it will be a complete lab-on-chip, but really I should say lab-on- card,” says Moore.
The first practical application of the devices will be carried out by the researchers themselves when they test three potential anti-cancer drugs provided by the Biotechnology Research Institute in Canada.