Microfluidic Biosensing System for Effective Cancer Diagnostics and Screening

Advanced portable microfluidic apparatus that captures target exosomes and allows detection by plasmonic biosensor for fast, high-sensitivity, and low-cost cancer screening.
Exosomes are effective biomarkers in cancer diagnostics. However, they are hard to detect due to their small size. We need to have a system with convenient application in hospitals or clinics for fast and accurate cancer diagnostics.
This invention consists of an advanced microfluidic sampling apparatus that can capture the target exosomes and be detected by a plasmonic biosensor to provide fast measurement of exosome with significantly improved sensitivity, thus allowing cancer screening to be done more conveniently, at a lower cost, and at a much higher level of accuracy. This invention represents a breakthrough in cancer screening.

Illustration of exosome capture and detection.

Trapping and sensing system.

Microfluidic biosensing chip.

Publications

1. S. Y. Zhu, H. Li, M. Yang, and S. W. Pang, “Label-Free Detection of Live Cancer Cells and DNA Hybridization using 3D Multilayered Plasmonic Biosesnor,” Nanotechnology, vol. 29, no. 36, pp. 365503, 2018.
2. S. Y. Zhu, H. Li, M. Yang, and S. W. Pang, “Highly Sensitive Detection of Exosomes by 3D Plasmonic Photonic Crystal Biosensor,” Nanoscale, vol. 10, no. 42, pp. 19927-19936, 2018.
3. S. Y. Zhu, M. A. Eldeeb, and S. W. Pang, “3D Nanoplasmonic Biosensor for Detection of Filopodia in Cells,” Lab Chip, vol. 20, pp. 2188-2196, 2020.