Project description
Advancing diagnostic sensitivity in liquid biopsies
Disease diagnosis involves the quantitative detection in biological fluids of molecules including proteins and nucleic acids. The technologies employed typically involve the use of enzymes that generate chemiluminescent or fluorescent signals which are picked up by sensors. The scope of the EU-funded VerSiLiB project is to develop an enzyme-free detection method: a digital platform capable of analysing both proteins and nucleic acids at the single-molecule level, using magnetic nanoparticles and utilising different affinities of biomolecules. The key features of the new technology include robustness, specificity, speed and accuracy, with respect to currently available enzyme-based detection technologies. The innovative technology will advance biomarker detection in liquid biopsy samples and assist in cancer management.
Objective
Robust detection of single molecules in complex biological fluids is the ultimate goal in the field of disease biomarker analysis. Conventionally, to enable the quantitative analysis of individual molecules in macroscopic volumes, analyte pre-concentration and sample partitioning into fL-nL compartments has been combined with the amplification of the specific recognition events. In these setups, the positive or negative detection of fluorescence signal is triggered by enzymatic reactions occurring in each compartment. Binary readout based on Poisson statistics quantifies ultra-low concentrations of analyte molecules. This approach has been adopted for nucleic acids analysis in current digital PCR, and is also available for proteins in a technique coined as digital ELISA.
The objective of VerSiLiB is to develop an enzyme-free amplification strategy for the analysis of both protein and nucleic acid analytes with the single digital platform that offers means to access additional information on target analytes not achievable with current technologies. Method is based on novel affinity-mediated-transport amplification, where affinity interaction of target analyte with a specific ligand attached to a magnetic nanoparticle transporter is accompanied with rapid shuttling of fluorescent tracers that serve as reporters. By applying external magnetic field, tracers are transported from the tracer storage side (where they are dark) to tracer active side (where they become bright) only if target analyte is present in the small reaction compartment. Tailored plasmonic nanostructures will be prepared at the storage and active sides of the compartment to render the tracer either dark or bright. The aim is to perform technology validation for the novel VerSiLiB proteogenomics amplification platform in cancer management using biobanked liquid biopsy samples.
Fields of science
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-EIC - HORIZON EIC GrantsCoordinator
02150 Espoo
Finland