̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Ronan Daly

Partnering with local hospitals during COVID-19

lw355 — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 09:20:13 +0000

From developing intensive care equipment to tackling supplies of PPE and oxygen, here's how a group of Cambridge researchers refocused and partnered with local hospitals during COVID-19.

Smartphone screens effective sensors for soil or water contamination

sc604 — Thu, 22 Jul 2021 15:36:55 +0000

Researchers from the ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge have demonstrated how a typical touchscreen could be used to identify common ionic contaminants in soil or drinking water by dropping liquid samples on the screen, the first time this has been achieved. ̽��ֱ��sensitivity of the touchscreen sensor is comparable to typical lab-based equipment, which would make it useful in low-resource settings.

̽��ֱ��researchers say their proof of concept could one day be expanded for a wide range of sensing applications, including for biosensing or medical diagnostics, right from the phone in your pocket. ̽��ֱ��results are reported in the journal Sensors and Actuators B.

Touchscreen technology is ubiquitous in our everyday lives: the screen on a typical smartphone is covered in a grid of electrodes, and when a finger disrupts the local electric field of these electrodes, the phone interprets the signal.

Other teams have used the computational power of a smartphone for sensing applications, but these have relied on the camera or peripheral devices, or have required significant changes to be made to the screen.

“We wanted to know if we could interact with the technology in a different way, without having to fundamentally change the screen,” said Dr Ronan Daly from Cambridge’s Institute of Manufacturing, who co-led the research. “Instead of interpreting a signal from your finger, what if we could get a touchscreen to read electrolytes, since these ions also interact with the electric fields?”

̽��ֱ��researchers started with computer simulations, and then validated their simulations using a stripped down, standalone touchscreen, provided by two UK manufacturers, similar to those used in phones and tablets.

̽��ֱ��researchers pipetted different liquids onto the screen to measure a change in capacitance and recorded the measurements from each droplet using the standard touchscreen testing software. Ions in the fluids all interact with the screen's electric fields differently depending on the concentration of ions and their charge.

“Our simulations showed where the electric field interacts with the fluid droplet. In our experiments, we then found a linear trend for a range of electrolytes measured on the touchscreen,” said first author Sebastian Horstmann, a PhD candidate at IfM. “ ̽��ֱ��sensor saturates at an anion concentration of around 500 micromolar, which can be correlated to the conductivity measured alongside. This detection window is ideal to sense ionic contamination in drinking water.”

One early application for the technology could be to detect arsenic contamination in drinking water. Arsenic is another common contaminant found in groundwater in many parts of the world, but most municipal water systems screen for it and filter it out before it reaches a household tap. However, in parts of the world without water treatment plants, arsenic contamination is a serious problem.

“In theory, you could add a drop of water to your phone before you drink it, in order to check that it’s safe,” said Daly.

At the moment, the sensitivity of phone and tablet screens is tuned for fingers, but the researchers say the sensitivity could be changed in a certain part of the screen by modifying the electrode design in order to be optimised for sensing.

“ ̽��ֱ��phone’s software would need to communicate with that part of the screen to deliver the optimum electric field and be more sensitive for the target ion, but this is achievable,” said Professor Lisa Hall from Cambridge’s Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, who co-led the research. “We’re keen to do much more on this – it’s just the first step.”

While it’s now possible to detect ions using a touchscreen, the researchers hope to further develop the technology so that it can detect a wide range of molecules. This could open up a huge range of potential health applications.

“For example, if we could get the sensitivity to a point where the touchscreen could detect heavy metals, it could be used to test for things like lead in drinking water. We also hope in the future to deliver sensors for home health monitoring,” said Daly.

“This is a starting point for broader exploration of the use of touchscreen sensing in mobile technologies and the creation of tools that are accessible to everyone, allowing rapid measurements and communication of data,” said Hall.

Reference:
Sebastian Horstmann, Cassi J Henderson, Elizabeth A H Hall, Ronan Daly ‘Capacitive touchscreen sensing - a measure of electrolyte conductivity.’ Sensors and Actuators B (2021). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.snb.2021.130318

̽��ֱ��touchscreen technology used in billions of smartphones and tablets could also be used as a powerful sensor, without the need for any modifications.

Instead of interpreting a signal from your finger, what if we could get a touchscreen to read electrolytes, since these ions also interact with the electric fields?

Ronan Daly

Sebastian video diary - Cambridge Festival

̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.

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̽��ֱ��'P' word

lw355 — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 08:00:00 +0000

How do we shift our 'take, make, throw-away' plastic world towards 'recycle, recover, re-use'? It's time for blue-sky thinking plus practical measures in the battle to reduce plastic waste.

Global teamwork brings low-cost test for Weil's disease a step closer

amb206 — Mon, 10 Jul 2017 06:00:11 +0000

Each year an estimated 1.03 million people around the world, many of them in poor countries, contract leptospirosis, with 58,900 of these infections resulting in death. Better known as Weil’s disease, leptospirosis is spread by animals such as rats and transmitted to humans when they come into contact with food, water or soil that is contaminated by infected animal urine. ̽��ֱ��infection can be successfully treated if diagnosed early. Untreated, the disease can lead to death.

Diagnosis of leptospirosis presents problems: the infection shares symptoms with other diseases, including dengue, malaria and viral hepatitis. ̽��ֱ��only way to confirm the illness is to take a blood sample and run specialised diagnostic tests. This process can be time-consuming and expensive.

Now, a global collaboration between Cambridge ̽��ֱ�� and ̽��ֱ�� of Ghana researchers in biotechnology, pathology and manufacturing is bringing a cheap diagnostic test a step closer.

̽��ֱ��global project was made possible through the Royal Society’s Global Challenge Research Fund, which enables outstanding UK research leaders to develop international collaborations with the best leading researchers from around the world, to work on some of the global challenges and problems facing developing countries.

Lead researchers Professor Elizabeth (Lisa) Hall (Head of the Cambridge Analytical Biotechnology Group) and Dr Gordon Awandare (Director of the West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens) are also working with engineers such as Dr Ronan Daly (IfM, Department of Engineering) to manufacture a single instrument, similar to the home pregnancy test, which will deliver accurate and rapid point-of-care diagnosis.

“Health practitioners need a simple test that enables them to detect the difference between bacterial and viral infections – such as leptospirosis and dengue – because they require very different treatments,” says Professor Hall.

“Our target is to develop a diagnostic test requiring a blood sample from a finger prick at a cost of less than $0.50 per test. ̽��ֱ��test has the potential to transform the way we diagnose and treat the one million people who contract leptospirosis every year.”

One of the most expensive components of the test for leptospirosis is the enzyme used to amplify the pathogen’s genetic material (DNA/RNA) to high enough levels to be detected.

“Specialist skills and refrigeration are required in traditional manufacturing of the enzyme,” says Professor Hall. “To overcome these barriers to local production, we’ve developed a technique that allows for direct purification of the enzyme from cell culture and packages it ready for use.”

̽��ֱ��team is also developing a novel technique to extract the pathogen’s DNA/RNA directly from the blood sample. “Both the DNA/RNA extraction system and the enzyme will be contained on a diagnostic card that can be manufactured locally – and ultimately from local materials,” says Professor Hall.

International cooperation has been crucial in the development of the test (see panel below). ̽��ֱ��Cambridge scientists are also working with Universiti Putra Malaysia – and would welcome new partners, both in the UK and overseas.

“We hope to deliver a sustained improvement in healthcare while also developing local economies. Local fabrication will drive sustainable local enterprise and help improve technological education,” says Dr Daly. “Leptospirosis has been recognised as a neglected disease by the World Health Organization and there is scope for taking a similar approach for developing point-of-care diagnostic tests for other treatable infectious diseases.

“They include food and waterborne diseases (bacterial diarrhoea, enteric fever, hepatitis A), vector-borne diseases (malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Zika), zoonotic diseases (leptospirosis, rabies) respiratory infections (influenza-like illnesses, pneumonia, tuberculosis) and HIV infection. These patients present with fever and a wide range of non-specific symptoms, which are difficult to diagnose without specialist laboratory tests. These may be expensive and/or unavailable, resulting in presumptive diagnosis and empirical treatment, which may be unnecessary, incorrect or potentially even harmful.”

̽��ֱ��various elements of the test are currently being developed in the lab, with the first protoype expected to be produced in 2018.

An on-the-spot, low-cost diagnostic test for leptospirosis (Weil's disease), a bacterial infection recognised as a neglected disease by the World Health Organization, could save lives in developing countries where there is little or no access to medical pathology laboratories and specialist technicians.

Our target is to develop a diagnostic test requiring a blood sample from a finger prick at a cost of less than $0.50 per test.

Lisa Hall

CDC Global/Evi Susanti Sinaga

Leptospirosis in farmers, Indonesia

Research partnership

Project leaders: Professor Lisa Hall (Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge), Professor Gordon Awandare (West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens) and Dr Ronan Daly (IfM, Department of Engineering, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge)

Project members: Cassi Henderson, Dushanth Seevaratnam, Dr Hui Yee Chee

Partners: West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens (WACCBIP); Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia

Funding: Royal Society International Collaboration Awards for Research Professors, IC160089 (Hall/Awandare): UPM Sabbatical award (Chee); Gates Cambridge Scholarship (Henderson)

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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