SENSE-OF-CARE · OFET biosensors for point-of-care applications

Electronic, label-free biosensors characterized by rapidity and detection proved to be very promising being able to directly detect biological recognition events without the need of markers. In this respect, organic bioelectronics has gained a huge interest among scientists coming from different disciplines and sectors due to its high impact on medical, clinical, food and environmental fields. Presently Europe holds a leading position in this research area, being almost all the world-leading research groups and industrial companies in this field located in Europe. Realizing the promise of Organic electronic sensors requires research and training in crossing disciplines, such as chemistry, biology, physics, materials science, and electrical engineering. The objective of this project is to strengthen the research in this new and fast developing strategic research field by teaching and training the next generation of scientists on OFET biosensors developments both in the academia and the private sectors.Innovative OFET biosensors for point-of-care application capable of sensitive, selective and reliable detection of analytes of clinical relevance will be developed. The novelty of the proposal is the development of OFET devices that fully integrate biological recognition elements, such as antibodies or other receptors to confer specificity. Specific reactions (i.e. antigen/antibody binding) will be then used for analyte detection. However, not only medical diagnostics but also a wide range of sensing applications (e.g. food monitoring, detection of chemical, biological poisoning agents, etc.) will benefit from these new OFET device configurations.