E-GNOSIS · e-Gnosis: a novel platform technology for quantitative mobile diagnostics

The aim is to produce a platform technology that combines the price-point and ease-of–use of lateral flow immunoassays with high-sensitivity, quantitative measurements currently requiring capital intensive equipment. This could ultimately allow its use as a consumer-technology, to diagnose and monitor health.e-Gnosis is an interdisciplinary project combining the current state-of-the-art in recessed ring-disk nanoelectrode arrays with a novel signal amplification strategy in the form of ferrocene loaded pH sensitive polymer nanobeads.e-Gnosis will combine these technologies to produce a multiplexed biosensor chip capable of running several ultra-high sensitivity immunoassays without the need for complex or expensive read-out equipment. The use of nanostructured electrode arrays allows the local pH to be changed electrochemically, such that the pH sensitive beads bound to the analyte dissolve and release ferrocene, leading to a large, proportional signal amplification of each binding event. Amplification can be triggered without external reagent addition and, importantly, without necessitating a wash step to remove unbound labels (the rapid initial current peak is bound to originate from within the nanostructures). Performance characteristics will include low sample volume requirement, sensitivity, limit of detection, robustness to interferrents, dynamic range and speed to result.Fabrication is based on highly parallel semiconductor fabrication technology and standard methods for antibody immobilisation, allowing low cost production.The e-Gnosis platform can also be used for other affinity based recognition events.Apart from the potential commercial and societal benefits of such a sensing technology, the project will also produce two enabling methods within nanofabrication and surface functionalisation.The project feeds into key areas identified by EU and industry stakeholders within ETP Nanomedicine and Horizon 2020, amongst others.