In the past, traditional medical tests rely on the Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA), which consume a lot of time and the specialists are needed. In other words, it’s costly. Lin Chii-wann, Professor at the Institute of Biomedical Engineering of NTU, said.

Lin Chii-wann and his team have developed rapid biosensing system including a disposable sensing chip technology and a multifunctional imaging device that can detect the disease within 30 minutes while using only 20 microliter of sample.

This new sensing system has demonstrated very high sensitivity in detecting tumor biomarkers. Additionally, Lin’s team designed functional nucleic acid probes for the detection of target proteins. Unlike antibodies, functional nucleic acid probes can be chemically synthesized, making them more cost-effective and suitable for the immunosensing.

In addition, they have developed the sensitive and low-cost nucleic acid

amplification for detecting small amounts of proteins. Compared with conventional immuno-PCR assays, this method can be operated at room temperature without the involvement of enzymes. The work was recently published in the prestigious Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

In the future, Lin’s team will combine their rapid biosensing system and low-cost nucleic acid amplification technique to identify other types of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and hepatitis.

Last but not least, the Disposable SPR Biosensor and Imaging SPR system (METAPLAS) can be conducted with molecular detection techniques in examining Bird Flu, Tuberculosis and Hepatitis in the future with less time and money.