Development of a nanobiosensor dedicated to early disease diagnosis

A European multidisciplinary project funded by the European Commission under Health research area of the 7^th Framework Programme

Context

Despite some recent advances, the detection of traces of biological species in medical diagnosis remains a challenge at the European level. Biological sensors able to detect specific biological species need further progress, not only new technical solutions but also application of new ideas and more sensitive methods. Indeed, the detection of biomarkers specific to some diseases for example can be of real importance for medical diagnosis. A large number of disease biomarkers are proteins and their presence in body fluids (blood, plasma, saliva…) are considered as indicators of the presence of some diseases. Thus, their detection is a key point in order to enable physicians to provide quickly the right therapy and their detection in low concentration could enable the early diagnosis of serious diseases.
Low-cost label free detection devices with a very high sensitivity and selectivity will help remove that bottleneck if used on a wide scale. Due to their complexity, the design of such devices requires an interdisciplinary collaboration as well as complementary expertises between the research groups that cannot be found at a single laboratory level.
It is in this context that the Nanoantenna consortium made of twelve European partners was created.
Nanoantenna is a three-year European multidisciplinary project funded by the European Commission under the “Health” research area of the Seventh Framework Programme. It aims at developing a highly sensitive and specific nanobiosensor based on extraordinary optical signal enhancement dedicated to the in vitro proteins detection and disease (cancer, cardiovascular or infectious diseases) diagnosis.


   

 Budget : €5.92 million including €4 million from the European Commission

Duration : 36 months (Oct. 2009 - Sept. 2012)