What’s on : Lectures

Photonic Biosensing of Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarkers

Lectures
Date
12 Nov 2024
Start time
7:00 PM
Venue
Tempest Anderson Hall
Speaker
Dr Steven Quinn, Senior Lecturer, University of York
Photonic Biosensing of Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarkers

Event Information

Photonic Biosensing of Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarkers

Dr Steven D. Quinn, Senior Lecturer & ARUK Fellow*, School of Physics, Engineering and Technology, University of York

A major issue facing the diagnosis of dementia is the availability of an accessible, scalable, and sensitive technology. Compelling evidence suggests that the abundance of blood-based biomarkers, including ß-amyloid (Aß) and tau implicated in Alzheimer’s disease, change considerably before clinical symptoms arise. Assessing these biomarkers via a straightforward blood test could facilitate early-stage diagnosis, revolutionise the recruitment of patients into clinical trials, and open a platform for at-home treatment monitoring. Current technologies for biomarker analysis are resource-intensive, rely on cerebrospinal fluid extraction, and are not widely adopted.

In this talk, I will demonstrate the detection of blood-based biomarkers using a next-generation photonic biosensor. Based on the principle of Guided Mode Resonance (GMR) spectroscopy, our technology is a low-cost handheld biosensor capable of real-time, sensitive and parallel readouts of biomarker levels. Our technology outperforms competing modalities, has sensitivity to clinically relevant biomarker concentrations, and opens exciting opportunities for democratizing testing.

*ARUK Fellows undertake research supported by The Alzheimer’s Society.  https://donate.alzheimersresearchuk.org/publicnew/

7pm in the Tempest Anderson Lecture Theatre in the Yorkshire Museum.