Yorkshire Philosophical Society

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.