Wearable devices
Sensors and Instrumentation
We collaborate with materials scientists and electrical engineers to develop on-body sensors to monitor physiological signals. Examples include pressure sensors, strain sensors, accelerometers, passive ECG monitoring devices. More recently, in collaboration with Mehmet Yuce’s group we have also started exploring contactless methods to monitor and identify movement patterns of multiple human subjects. This approach focuses on substantially simpler devices consisting of nothing other than a PDMS substrate attached to an aluminium film, and can differentiate activities such as walking and running of multiple individuals as well as their speed, and relative position.
Contactless tracking of physical activity, Nano Energy, 90, A, 2021, 106486.
Point of care devices / sample preparation for molecular tests
Our work on point of care diagnostics focuses on portable instrumentation to process very small volume biological samples and interfacing them with different diagnostic platforms. Examples include a portable, battery operated, label-free plasma separation system, which can process 3 µL of blood in under 2 min with 98% collection efficiency, devices which can lyse cells and homogenise whole blood in several seconds.
Portable Plasma separation platform, Biosensors 2022, 12(2), 119
Our collaboration with Patrick Kwan’s group at Alfred Hospital is developing fully portable, easy to manufacture genetic tests. Our LAMP based COVID test can detect infections in under 35 minutes (sample in - results out) with 100% sensitivity and specificity. The devices use 3D printed microfluidic cartridges that allow precise sample introduction from a nasal swab collection and integrate all the transfer and reaction steps into a single pocket size device. Other joint work with Materials engineers has resulted in extremely precise Field Effect Transistors which can detect biomolecule concentrations as small as 1 pg/ml.
Portable Nucleaic Acid Amplification Test to detect Covid 19, Scientific Reports 2021, 11(1):15176.