Objective
There is growing commercial interest in bio-responsive materials because of their many applications, such as in medical
diagnostics at the point of care and in drug discovery and development. Our developed assay technologies manipulate
the properties of gold nanoparticles and enzyme-based reactions to detect enzyme activity. Most diagnostics target either
expressed antigens (immunodiagnostics) or DNA (molecular diagnostics).
Our bio-responsive nanoparticle technology can offer a sensitive, specific and affordable platform for the development of rapid
point-of-care tests based on simple colour readouts. Additionally one of the great advantages of our technology is the fact
that, in addition to diagnosing disease, it can also potentially help in the search for new drugs to treat those diseases. In
contrast to methods that simply measure enzyme concentration, our method actually measures enzyme activity. In this ERC
POC our expected outcomes include a number of important commercial milestones and technical developments to expand
the platform to other diseases and test its application in high throughput drug screening. This value
will carry through in both licensing and spin-out, since these issues are fundamental to any business venture. Furthermore,
we propose a balanced plan that includes technical research combined with commercial investigations and identification
of appropriate industrial partners. At the conclusion of this work, we will be in a much stronger position to immediately
commercialise this technology, bringing its benefits to the broader healthcare market.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
ERC-2011-PoC
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
CSA-SA(POC) - Supporting action (Proof of Concept)Host institution
SW7 2AZ LONDON
United Kingdom