Diagnostic system for simultaneous detection of several disease biomarkers in blood samples worked out by MEPhI Laboratory of Nano-Bioengineering (LNBE) employees has been registered. A patent “A Method for Fabrication of Arrays of Microbeads Optically Encoded with Fluorescent Nanocrystals and Carrying Capture Biomolecules on Their Surface” has been obtained by junior research fellow Regina Bilan, leading researcher Alina Sukhanova and LNBE leading researcher Igor Nabiev in the Centre of Information Technologies and Systems for Executive Power Authorities.
Nano-bioengineering systems for diagnostics of diseases, in particular oncological, have been one of the key areas of the LNBE work since its establishment. The necessity of a breakthrough in this sphere is long overdue because, firstly, the death rates from oncological diseases continues to grow, and, secondly, new technologies of their treatment can save thousands of lives if a disease is detected at an early stage.
Detection of cancer biomarkers in blood samples - anti-bodies and antigens – has turned out to be effective, with the help of special probes which have a diagnosticate molecule (an anti-body to a biomarker and a fluorescent label). In diagnosticums worked out in LNBE fluorescent semi-conducting nanocrystals (quantum dots-QT) are such labels. They have a brighter luminescence than organic phosphors used before, are resistant to photo-discoloration, and have two unique properties: 1) luminescence color of QT is defined by their size and can vary in the optical spectrum from infra-red to ultraviolet, 2) the absorption spectrum of QT is very broad so the same radiation source can provoke fluorescence of QT of different colours. The usage of nanocrystals as phosphors makes diagnostics system more sensitive compared to their prototypes.
Diagnostic system worked out in LNBE MEPhI can be used for diagnostics of oncology as well as other diseases.
For further information you can contact LNBE MEPhI junior research fellow Regina Bilan reginchg@gmail.com
