“There are all kinds of tiny devices, biosensors, commercial and in research, to measure certain substances on and in the human body,” according to Prof. Menno Prins in his Brightlands Science Lecture “A game change in continuous biochemical monitoring”. Prins is full-time professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Applied Physics, where he leads the Molecular Biosensing group.
Prins; “These substances are indicators for the physical condition, the health of the person concerned. For example, the concentration of glucose in the blood is an indicator for administrating insulin.”
These devices can measure substances up to very low concentrations. A gamechanger in biosensors is measuring individual molecules. In his lecture, Prof. Prins gave examples of how this type of bio-sensing is already feasible. One method concerns particle motion. The other method involves gold nanoparticles, watch the animated video.
Research into single-molecular bio-sensors is relevant, because it may provide very accurate measurements for medical and non-medical applications.
Dr. Shane Ellis, Assistant Professor at the Maastricht Multimodal Molecular Imaging Institute (M4I), gave a very appropriate Kickstarter Lecture “Where are my fat molecules?”, in which he explained how the chemical state of lipids in the human body is a perfect indicator of various diseases.
To finalize his lecture, Prof. Prins promoted SensUs, a student competition on biosensors, with teams from universities all over the world. The 2018 theme is “Measuring antibiotics for better health”.
More information about the Brightlands Science Lectures? Click here. the community page.
