Nano tech to cut diagnosis costs

Scientists of Bengalurubased Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has developed a nanotechnology platform, which can bring the cost of diagnosing diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The platform will allow the creation of portable diagnostic kits which will have biosensors — created using fibre optics and nano materials.

According to IISc scientist professor Ajay Kumar Sood the biosensors will sense glucose, glycolated hemoglobin and C-reactive protein.

“The technology has to be taken to field trials and is highly accurate in the labs. There are similar foreign technologies that have hit the market recently,” he said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 104th Indian Science Congress here on Wednesday, Prof. Sood said, “Graphene oxide — a nano material — is used in this technology. These are the most sensitive detectors that they sense one nanomolar to a nano molecule.”

The bio sensor platform, which uses etched Fibre Bragg Grating, has high speed connectivity and detects glucose. The Fiber Bragg Grating looks like a cylindrical tube coated with graphene oxide and antibodies for detecting the protein. A change in reflected wavelength will be calculated to understand the concentrations.

He said, “Recent years there has been an unprecedented excitement in the scientific community related to one and two dimensional forms of carbon, namely, nanotubes and grapheme. These nano forms of carbon and other 2D nanonmaterials have not only have fascinating physical properties from the basic science point of view but has an application value. We conducted recently optical experiments on the 2D Nanosystem.”