A primary motivation of our research is the monitoring of physical, physiological, and biochemical parameters - in any environment and without activity restriction and behaviour modification - through using miniaturised, wireless Body Sensor Networks (BSN). Key research issues that are currently being addressed include novel sensor designs, ultra-low power microprocessor and wireless platforms, energy scavenging, biocompatibility, system integration and miniaturisation, processing-on-node technologies combined with novel ASIC design, autonomic sensor networks and light-weight communication protocols. Our research is aimed at addressing the future needs of life-long health, wellbeing and healthcare, particularly those related to demographic changes associated with an ageing population and patients with chronic illnesses. This research theme is therefore closely aligned with the IGHI’s vision of providing safe, effective and accessible technologies for both developed and developing countries.
Some of our latest works were exhibited at the 2015 Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.
@inproceedings{Dryden:2020:10.1117/12.2545515,
author = {Dryden, S and Anastasova, S and Satta, G and Thompson, AJ and Leff, DR and Darzi, AW},
doi = {10.1117/12.2545515},
pages = {1124705--1--1124705--7},
publisher = {SPIE},
title = {Toward point-of-care uropathogen detection using SERS active filters},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2545515},
year = {2020}
}
TY - CPAPER
AB - 150 million people worldwide suffer one or more urinary tract infections (UTIs) annually. UTIs are a significant health burden: societal costs of UTI exceed $3.5 billion in the U.S. alone; 5% of sepsis cases arise from a urinary source; and UTIs are a prominent contributor toward antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Current diagnostic frameworks exacerbate this burden by providing inaccurate and delayed diagnosis. Rapid point-of-care bacterial identification will allow for early precision treatment, fundamentally altering the UTI paradigm. Raman spectroscopy has a proven ability to provide rapid bacterial identification but is limited by weak bacterial signal and a susceptibility to background fluorescence. These limitations may be overcome using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), provided close and consistent application of bacteria to the SERS-active surface can be achieved. Physical filtration provides a means of capturing uropathogens, separating them from the background solution and acting as SERS-active surface. This work demonstrates that filters can provide a means of aggregating bacteria, thereby allowing subsequent enhancement of the acquired Raman signal using metallic nanoparticles. 60 bacterial suspensions of common uropathogens were vacuum filtered onto commercial polyvinylidene fluoride membrane filters and Raman signals were enhanced by the addition of silver nanoparticles directly onto the filter surface. SERS spectra were acquired using a commercial Raman spectrometer (Ocean Optics, Inc.). Principal Component – Linear Discriminant Analysis provided discrimination of infected from control samples (accuracy: 88.75%, 95% CI: 79.22-94.59%, p-value <0.05). Amongst infected samples uropathogens were classified with 80% accuracy. This study has demonstrated that combining Raman spectroscopy with membrane filtration and SERS can provide identification of infected samples and rapid bacterial classification.
AU - Dryden,S
AU - Anastasova,S
AU - Satta,G
AU - Thompson,AJ
AU - Leff,DR
AU - Darzi,AW
DO - 10.1117/12.2545515
EP - 1
PB - SPIE
PY - 2020///
SP - 1124705
TI - Toward point-of-care uropathogen detection using SERS active filters
UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2545515
UR - https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-proceedings-of-spie/11247/2545515/Toward-point-of-care-uropathogen-detection-using-SERS-active-filters/10.1117/12.2545515.full?SSO=1
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/77604
ER -