A research team at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has developed new laser technology that could lead to tiny, cost-effective biosensors. The sensors integrate lasers and optics together on a centimeter-sized chip, which could move testing from hospitals to patients’ homes. This, in turn, would free up hospital beds and reduce visits to clinics.
By studying how various biomolecules interact with each other – for example antibodies in the immune system and xenobiotic antigens – researchers can gain valuable insights leading to new medicines and vaccines or assess whether a sample contains signs of infection.
Optical biosensors based on a technique called surface-plasmon resonance are an important tool used for studying these types of interactions. The sensors direct light onto a gold surface and measure minuscule changes in the light’s reflection when biomolecules are placed on the surface.
Now, a research team at Chalmers is announcing a new laser technology that makes it possible to create such biosensors in a miniature format. The laser source and the necessary optics are directly integrated onto a semiconductor chip, allowing for significantly more compact sensors. This opens the door to making optical sensing technology portable and applicable outside the laboratory environment.
