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 life. What if there was a possibility to combine all this testing in one single device 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 can be an indicator for an immune response towards an infection or a successful vaccination.
They also play an important role in the diagnosis of autoimmune diseases.
Especially the ability to differentiate between life threatening diseases and mild infections within a short time bears the potential to save lives.

Spotting diseases by detecting correspondent antibodies in a patient's serum is an established method in modern diagnostics. The DiaCHIP makes it possible to screen for multiple specific antibodies at once simply using a drop of blood.

The Concept

The key feature of the DiaCHIP concept is the combination of on-demand protein synthesis and a novel method for label-free detection 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.