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    Fiber Optic Biosensor-integrated Microfluidic Chip to Detect Glucose Levels

    Investing News Network
    Apr. 28, 2016 09:23AM PST
    Medical Device Investing

    WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Insulin deficiency and hyperglycemia are two well-known culprits behind diabetes, both of which are reflected in blood glucose concentrations. Now, researchers are working to create ultrasensitive lab-on-a-chip devices to quickly measure glucose concentrations with the goal of developing device for early diagnosis and prevent of diabetes. A team of researchers from The Hong Kong …

    WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Insulin deficiency and hyperglycemia are two well-known culprits behind
    diabetes, both of which are reflected in blood glucose concentrations.
    Now, researchers are working to create ultrasensitive lab-on-a-chip
    devices to quickly measure glucose concentrations with the goal of
    developing device for early diagnosis and prevent of diabetes.
    A team of researchers from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and
    Zhejiang University in China report integrating fiber optic glucose
    sensors into a microfluidic chip to create portable, high-performance,
    low-cost devices for measuring glucose levels in a paper published this
    week in the journal Biomedical
    Optics Express
    , from The
    Optical Society
    (OSA).
    “Today, photonic approaches are recognized as the most promising
    techniques for ultrasensitive sensing,” said Dr. A. Ping Zhang,
    associate professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, The
    Hong Kong Polytechnic University
    . “In particular, the synergistic
    integration of photonic sensing and microfluidics led to the
    state-of-the-art technology known as ‘optofluidics’ for biological and
    chemical analysis.”
    One reason microfluidic chip technology is so appealing is that it
    provides a tiny platform to integrate sensors with functional
    components, such as microfluidic mixers, in order to achieve a
    lab-on-a-chip analysis system for fast and reliable results.
    While electrochemical glucose biosensors can be integrated into
    microfluidic channels to develop easy-to-handle, low-cost, and portable
    microfluidic chips, electroactive interference problems often appear in
    electrochemical sensors. But fiber optic sensors offer a solution to
    this issue, thanks to their immunity to electromagnetic interference.
    By combining a new fiber optic biosensor with a microfluidic chip, Zhang
    and colleagues created an interference-free optofluidic device for
    ultrasensitive detection of glucose levels.
    Their method involves “fabricating an optical fiber ‘long-period
    grating’ (LPG) with a period of 390 microns within a small-diameter
    optical fiber with a cladding diameter of 80 microns,” he explained.
    “Such fiber optic devices induce strong co-directional mode coupling
    through a resonant scattering process. And the resulting central
    wavelength is very sensitive to changes of the refractive index (RI) of
    the surrounding media via the evanescent field of optical fiber cladding
    mode.”
    To transform the fiber optic RI sensor into a glucose sensor, the team
    selected glucose oxidase as a sensing material that would react with
    glucose in solution. “To support the sensing film and magnify RI change,
    a pH-responsive multilayer film of polyethylenimine (PEI) and
    polyacrylic acid (PAA) is deposited on the side surface of the LPG
    sensor before immobilization of the sensing film,” Zhang noted.
    The PEI/PAA multilayer film “surveils the oxidation of glucose with the
    gluclose oxidase catalyst and responds to the reaction via swelling or
    contracting,” he added.
    Experimental results revealed that the new fiber optic sensor “is very
    sensitive on its own and can detect glucose oxidase concentrations as
    low as 1 nM (10-9 molarity),” he said. But, after integration
    into the microfluidic chip, the sensor’s performance was “remarkably
    further improved in terms of detection range and response time.”
    Also, notably, “no significant loss of biomolecular activity was
    observed during the experiments, which implies that our layer-by-layer
    self-assembly technique renders a robust electrostatic absorption of
    glucose oxidase within the sensing film,” Zhang said.
    The team’s work “is a significant step toward developing optofluidic
    devices for the early diagnosis and prevention of diabetes,” he said.
    In terms of applications, the optofluidic device enables detection of
    glucose in solution — requiring only a tiny droplet of sweat. “This
    makes it an extremely appealing technology to develop for early
    diagnosis of diabetes via monitoring glucose content within sweat,”
    Zhang said.
    Their ultimate goal is to develop multifunctional “lab-on-a-chip”
    devices — through the integration of photonics, microfluidics, and
    functional materials onto a small chip. “Such a technology will enable a
    broad range of research and development in biomedical diagnostics,
    environmental monitoring and even aid drug discovery,” he noted.
    Paper: Ming-jie Yin, Bobo Huang, Shaorui Gao, A. Ping Zhang, and
    Xuesong Ye, “Optical
    fiber LPG biosensor integrated microfluidic chip for ultrasensitive
    glucose detection
    ,” Biomed. Opt. Express 7, 2067-2077 (2016).
    DOI: 10.1364/BOE.7.002067.
    About Biomedical Optics Express
    Biomedical Optics Express is OSA’s principal outlet for
    serving the biomedical optics community with rapid, open-access,
    peer-reviewed papers related to optics, photonics and imaging in the
    life sciences. The journal scope encompasses theoretical modeling and
    simulations, technology development, and biomedical studies and clinical
    applications. It is published by The Optical Society and edited by
    Christoph Hitzenberger of The Medical University of Vienna. Biomedical
    Optics Express
     is an open-access journal and is available at no
    cost to readers online at: OSA
    Publishing
    .
    About The Optical Society
    Founded in 1916, The Optical Society (OSA) is the leading professional
    organization for scientists, engineers, students and entrepreneurs who
    fuel discoveries, shape real-life applications and accelerate
    achievements in the science of light. Through world-renowned
    publications, meetings and membership initiatives, OSA provides quality
    research, inspired interactions and dedicated resources for its
    extensive global network of optics and photonics experts. For more
    information, visit osa.org/100.

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