Project Motivation

Serological tests are a key element in modern medicine. Especially for detection and identification of infectious diseases, performing several blood tests is inevitable. Testing for more than one disease at a time or diagnosing a patient with diffuse symptoms usually requires more than one serological test. Every single test that is performed increases the time of waiting for a result as well as the bill. In case of dangerous infectious diseases every minute until the onset of the appropriate treatment is important for survival. What if there was a possibility to combine all this testing in one single chip which is affordable for everyone?

Detecting Antigen-Antibody Interactions

The DiaCHIP is an innovative tool to screen for a broad range of antibodies present in serum. Antibodies serve as indicator for an immune response towards an infectious disease or a successful vaccination. They also play an important role in the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases. Identifying diseases by detecting disease associated antibodies in a patient's serum is an established method in modern diagnostics.
Based on the very same principle, the DiaCHIP enables to simultaneously screen for multiple diseases at a time, thereby reducing time and costs of a diagnosis. Especially the ability to differentiate between life threatening diseases and mild infections within a short time bears the potential to save lifes.

The Concept

The key feature of the DiaCHIP concept is the combination of on-demand protein synthesis of disease related antigens and a novel method for label-free detection - all this packed into one device. The idea is to overcome challenges commonly found in protein array production and preservation. In addition, results can be obtained in a time- and cost-efficient manner; with a device simple enough to be rebuilt by future iGEM teams.

Step by Step Overview