Dr Cian Hughes. Image: Daire Hall
The team said they produced 200 biosensors in a few hours at a cost of only a few cent each, making a form of cancer diagnosis more financially viable.
A team of researchers at Dublin City University (DCU) claim to have discovered a new method to produce gold nanoparticles in a safer and more cost-effective way.
The team said these nanoparticles are vital for biosensor technology, which can be used to provide quick and accurate diagnosis of various health problems. But current manufacturing methods are costly and have environmental impacts, according to the researchers.
It is hoped that the discovery could be used to manufacture biosensor equipment at scale and more cheaply than current manufacturing methods.
The team said its new production process involves using a laser to blast a piece of gold within a liquid medium to produce the nanoparticles which are used to manufacture the sensors. The team then created a sensor from this manufacturing process to detect a molecule that is present in the blood of cancer patients.
The researchers claim this form of cancer testing is not currently viable due to the cost of manufacturing the biosensors. But the team claim their trial production run created more than 200 of these sensors in a few hours and only cost a few cents for each sensor.
The process is designed to be automated so it can be scaled up for manufacturing in factories. Dr Cian Hughes – one of the researchers involved in the study – said nanotechnology can be used to “save countless lives”.
“These sci-fi-like materials and processes have all been brought together to create small trinkets that glow or spark to tell us everything we need to know about the inner workings of the human organism,” Hughes said.
“It is nothing short of a miracle that it has been possible to create such devices, and that is the problem: miracles aren’t sustainable. We hope this project can point the way to more sustainable production of biosensors.”
Dr Sithara Sreenilayam and Prof Dermot Brabazon were also involved in this DCU project. Brabazaon said he was grateful for the funding from Science Foundation Ireland and the “great work of the researchers involved without which this positive outcome would not have been possible.”
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