###An implantable biosensor microsystem for real-time measurement of circulating biomarkers
Project ID: 2228bd1040 (You will need this ID for your application)
Research Theme: Healthcare Technologies
UCL Lead department: Electronic and Electrical Engineering (EEE)
Lead Supervisor: Andreas Demosthenous
Project Summary:
Three percent of the NHS budget, over £3 billion per year, is spent on kidney failure services. In humans, diagnosing and identifying stages of renal disease can be difficult. Measurement of glomerular filtration rate is considered the gold standard for assessing renal function but methods for its assessment can be technically challenging and impractical. The main parameters used to diagnose acute and chronic kidney disease include circulating creatinine and urea concentrations, and urine-specific gravity. However, these parameters do not provide accurate measurements and cannot achieve the required sensitivity to provide timely intervention. There is an urgent need for better methods to diagnose and monitor patients with renal disease.
In the longer term, monitoring blood biomarkers will be critical to the effectiveness and reliability of the dialysis provided by artificial kidneys, to prevent side effects of the procedure such as inflammation and amyloidosis. This requires the monitoring of amyloidosis generated by b2-microglobulin (b2-m) aggregation and inflammatory response to the dialytic procedure. The two events (inflammation and amyloid deposition) are interconnected and have dramatic consequences on long term quality of life of patients.
To address both the short-term and long-term needs, our goal is to develop an implantable biosensor microsystem (IMBIOSYS) for effective monitoring of key biomarkers in dialysis systems. The ultimate objective is the development of a biosensor microsystem suitable for implantation in humans but can also be employed as an external tool in a dialysis system. It is anticipated that the successful demonstration of the proposed IMBIOSYS device will lead to additional work using implantable biosensors to diagnose and treat other conditions (e.g., heart diseases, dementia, depression, diabetes, and arthritis) as well as for personalised drug delivery. The data collected from the device would also allow provision of digital heath to manage illnesses and health risks providing early treatment interventions.