Graphene sensors: introduction and market status - Page 6

Archer Materials has reported the completion of a proof-of-concept biosensing graphene transistor for use in its biochip, and submitted the technology
design to a commercial foundry to verify scalability.

Archer’s optical lithography has electrodes, bond pads, and other graphene componentry, that allow the biochip’s sensor device design to scale more easily to produce complete wafers in collaboration with commercial foundries. The Archer-designed gFET sensing chips will be produced by a commercial foundry, with the aim of Archer validating its design to ensure appropriate scalability for the manufacturing process.

Researchers find a way to make the detection of antibiotic residues in water more quick and simple. The research team included scientists from the Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute (CATRIN) at Palacký University and the Technical University of Ostrava. The new biosensor looks like a small box connected to a mobile phone. This device can immediately detect even very small antibiotic residues, namely ampicillin, in water or dairy products.

It is based on a tailor-made nanomaterial derived from fluorographene, developed by scientists from the Graphene Flagship Associated Member Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute (CATRIN) of Palacký University and its Faculty of Science (Czech Republic). They used the so-called click chemistry method, which was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry last year.

Researchers at Queen Mary University, University of Sussex and University of Brighton have integrated graphene into seaweed to create nanocomposite microcapsules for highly tunable and sustainable epidermal electronics. When assembled into networks, the tiny capsules can record muscular, breathing, pulse, and blood pressure measurements in real-time with ultrahigh precision.

The team explained that much of the current research on nanocomposite-based sensors is related to non-sustainable materials. This means that these devices contribute to plastic waste when they are no longer in use. The new study shows that it is possible to combine molecular gastronomy concepts with biodegradable materials to create such devices that are not only environmentally friendly, but also have the potential to outperform the non-sustainable ones.

Graphene is known to have an extremely quick response to incoming light, which leads scientists to believe it can potentially lead to applications like ultrafast photodetectors that could meet the ever-growing demand for internet bandwidth. However, graphene's exceptional thinness means that it absorbs light poorly, typically tapping only about 2% of a laser beam’s energy.

Now, scientists from Switzerland's ETH Zurich have shown how graphene’s speed might be exploitable after all, by integrating it with a tailor-made infrared absorber—a metamaterial consisting of an array of tiny gold antennas. The researchers have reportedly demonstrated a world-record photodetection bandwidth of 500 GHz combined with a flat frequency response across a broad part of the near-infrared spectrum. Although the device’s overall absorption still remains fairly low, they believe that its ability to deal with high input powers combined with further design optimizations could enable a new generation of graphene-based photodetectors.

Researchers from California Institute of Technology (Caltech), The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, University of California Los Angeles and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have designed a wearable and wireless patch for the real-time electrochemical detection of the inflammatory biomarker C-reactive (CRP) protein in sweat. CRP is secreted by the liver and is commonly associated with inflammation. Its presence in the bloodstream strongly indicates an underlying health condition. CRP is much more difficult to detect because it is at a much lower concentration than other biomarkers.

The device integrates iontophoretic sweat extraction, microfluidic channels for sweat sampling and for reagent routing and replacement, and a graphene-based sensor array for quantifying CRP (via an electrode functionalized with anti-CRP capture antibodies-conjugated gold nanoparticles), ionic strength, pH and temperature for the real-time calibration of the CRP sensor.

DARPA, Siemens, the U.S ARMY, Georgia Tech Research Institute and Paragraf - through recently acquired Cardea Bio, now Paragraf San Diego - have presented novel multiomics capabilities, by detection of both protein and RNA biosignals simultaneously on a single graphene-based biosensor.

It was stated that this achievement marks the first public demonstration of this novel methodology for multiomics and that the paper is the first in the world demonstrating the capability to detect both protein and RNA biosignals in a COVID-19 based experiment where both the COVID wild type as well as the Omicron variant were successfully detected.

Earlier this month, Hememics Biotechnologies, developer of a rapid handheld bio testing platform based on unique graphene-based sensors, raised a $2 million seed round to help build its “lab in a hand” tech. Now, Hememics Biotechnologies also entered into a strategic partnership with General Graphene Corporation, the culmination of a four-year collaborative effort to develop a scalable, non-clean-room process for the manufacturing of the company’s 32-plex, graphene biosensor chips. 

Combined with Hememics’ expertise in long-shelf-life detection biology, this partnership aims to revolutionize point-of-care diagnostics tools for pathogens and environmental toxins.

GrapheneDX, General Graphene Corporation and Sapphiros have announce a strategic partnership to industrialize graphene-based biosensors for medical devices used to diagnose a variety of diseases at the point-of-care and in consumer settings.

GrapheneDx is an in vitro diagnostics company focused on improving diagnostic capability at the point-of-care and in consumer settings. The company is an expert in functionalizing graphene to create graphene field effect transistors (GFETs), which are biosensors that can be used to detect disease in biological samples. GrapheneDx's medical devices are designed to provide lab-quality accuracy, deliver results in less than 5 minutes and be simple enough to be performed both at the point of care and by patients without the supervision of a medical professional. The company's GFET platform is versatile, demonstrating performance across a variety of disease states (sexually transmitted infections, respiratory disease, cardiac disease, concussion and others) and sample types (stool, urine, swabs, blood, etc.), with little or no sample preparation. Additionally, the platform is capable of multiplexing numerous analytes concurrently with a single patient sample. GrapheneDx's first tests will be for the diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections, including Chlamydia and Gonorrhea, using a noninvasive, easy to collect urine sample.

U.S-based Hememics, developer of a rapid handheld bio testing platform based on unique graphene-based sensors, has raised a $2 million seed round to help build its “lab in a hand” tech.

Maryland’s TEDCO led the Seed 2 round, though a company statement said that other existing investors and a strategic investor also took part. Hememics, founded in 2007, developed a handheld, multiplexed sensor platform for simultaneously testing antibodies, antigens and more in a blood test. The nine-person company was founded by CEO John Warden, a fintech and drug development alum, and chief scientific officer David Ho, a blood platelets expert.

Stellantis and Lyten have announced that Stellantis Ventures, the corporate venture fund of Stellantis, invested in Lyten to accelerate the commercialization of Lyten 3D Graphene™ applications for the mobility industry, including the LytCell™ Lithium-Sulfur EV battery, lightweighting composites, and novel on-board sensing. 

Lyten will aim to leverage the tunability of the material to enable enhanced vehicle performance and customer experience while decarbonizing the transportation sector. Lyten’s tunable materials platform has demonstrated significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and will advance the transition to sustainable mobility.