BioMed X completes development of graphene-based biosensors for near-patient testing

BioMed X has announced the completion of its first research collaboration project with Roche Diagnostics in the field of nanomaterial-based biosensors for near patient testing. BioMed X successfully achieved the proof of principle for a new sensor platform allowing the analysis of several different parameters from blood samples with one single device.

The project was initiated in 2015 as a call for application using BioMed X’s proprietary crowdsourcing platform for project proposals. As a result of an international innovation challenge, a team of early-career researchers from five different countries worked in Germany on the design of a field effect transistor-based multimodal sensing platform for proteins, blood gases and electrolytes, metabolites and enzymes with a single-use disposable material for point-of-care diagnostics.

The team successfully demonstrated the first highly sensitive label-free detection of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in undiluted human serum on a new FET sensor design based on gold and graphene. A fundamental limit to previous sensor designs, known as Debye screening, was overcome by specific modification of the sensor surfaces. Meanwhile the sensor design has been further refined and the goal was met to show proof-of-principle for the multimodal sensing platform allowing detection of multiple analytes from whole human blood samples.

Following BioMed X’s strategy, the intellectual property (IP) and know-how has been transferred to Roche Diagnostics for further development.

BioMed X Innovation Center The BioMed X Innovation Center is a collaboration model at the interface between academia and industry. At the center, distinguished early-career scientists recruited from all over the world jointly work on novel pre-clinical research projects in the fields of oncology, immunology, neuroscience, respiratory and diagnostics. These interdisciplinary project teams conduct groundbreaking biomedical research in an open innovation lab facility at the Technology Park on the campus of the University of Heidelberg, Germany. They are working under the guidance of experienced mentors from academia and industry while expanding their scientific network and receiving leadership training. Each team is typically sponsored by a corporate pharma partner of BioMed X. After a fully funded project term, successful projects are internalized into the development pipeline of the respective pharma partner. BioMed X collaborates with pharma companies such as AbbVie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen, Merck and Roche.