It’s been a good year for Professor Kirill Alexandrov of the University of Queensland IMB, with solid support in the form of grants flowing in for development of a novel biosensor.
Development of highly sensitive diagnostic test for active form of prostate specific antigen
All prostate cancer treatments are most effective when the cancer has been detected at early stages. The currently broadly used prostate cancer blood test relies on a single marker. The proposed research will use synthetic biology approach to design ultrasensitive and inexpensive tests for prostate cancer that can be performed using broadly available electronic devices such as smart phones. Such test will allow in-depth analysis directly in the doctor’s office or even in the patient home. In addition to early diagnosis the test will allow long term monitoring of patients that have undergone prostate cancer treatment and require long term screening for cancer relapse. Availability of such tests will increase compliance and facilitate monitoring of the patients without the need for doctor's visits or specialised infrastructure.
This follows last month’s announcement that Prof Alexandrov will use a NHMRC Development Grant to create a new test system to allow patients and clinicians to better manage organ transplant medication and reduce rejection.
In October an ARC grant was awarded to Prof Alexandrov to "develop inexpensive biosensors with the potential to detect almost any molecule to collect biological information within the body and send the information to an electronic device such as a smartphone".
In July 2013, Phylogica announced a collaboration with the IMB with the ultimate goal of constructing a universal specificity Phylomer chip. It was proposed that this low-cost consumable device would allow the identification of peptide probes that are specific for any target biomolecule, in a matter of minutes.
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