Course details
- Duration: 12.5 hours, spread over 6 days
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Presented by Dr Ali Yetisen, Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that rapid medical testing was an indispensable need of healthcare systems worldwide to identify high-risk patients who need urgent treatment. Designing novel materials and devices for application in medical technologies is key in saving lives and delivering efficient, reliable and low-cost solutions for clinicians and patients.
Medical technologies that can be developed as benchtop handheld, and wearable formats to collect biophysical and biochemical patient data for diagnosing metabolic disorders, diseases and infections.
This masterclass will provide participants with an overview of materials, components and devices to innovate in the design, development and production of biomedical devices for applications in point-of-care and wearable diagnostics. The unmet clinical needs and rapid deployment of these biomedical technologies will be also discussed.
Participants will have a unique opportunity to work on a design project to develop a diagnostic technology that will solve a global unmet medical problem in infectious diseases.
Delivered via Microsoft Teams over six days with 1.5 hours live class per day to include interactive exercises, quizzes, videos, group discussion and guest speakers.
Upon completion of this masterclass, participants will receive a digital certificate from Imperial College London.
More information
Topics covered include:
- Biosensors
To demonstrate the concepts and applications in optical sensors (chromogenic, fluorescent, bioluminescent, biophotonic) and applications in benchtop, handheld and wearable diagnostic devices. - Paper-Based Diagnostic Tests
To describe paper-based lateral-flow tests providing an overview of the challenges and limitations in cost-efficient medical diagnostics. - Microfluidic Devices
To explore the concept of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) and microfluidic devices and provide an outline of the state-of-the-art technologies in multiplexed detection of biomarkers. - Readout Devices and Data Acquisition
To identify the basics of reading data from diagnostic assays using benchtop, handheld and smartphone-based analyzers and to explore biophysical and biochemical data collection in monitoring vital signs. - Wearable Devices
To apply the concepts and applications of microfluidics, multiplexed assays to wearable devices in sensing sweat and interstitial fluid biomarkers for real-time patient monitoring. - Design Projects
To develop a diagnostic technology that will solve a global unmet medical problem in infectious diseases and companion diagnostics.
On completion of this masterclass, participants will be able to:
- Describe the latest development in biosensor technologies.
- Understand the basic knowledge about paper-based devices and the associated fabrication methods.
- Apply the knowledge and experience gained to develop point-of-care multiplexed microfluidic diagnostics assays.
- Design and develop readout platforms for quantitative biomarker analysis.
- Create wearable devices that can collect real-time biomarker data.
This masterclass is designed for UG or PG students studying in engineering, biology, chemistry, physics, biotechnology, computing or related disciplines with an interest in designing innovative biomedical technologies.
Pre-requisite: Students are expected to have a basic knowledge in chemistry and biology. For those who do not have basic knowledge of chemistry and biology, a pre-reading list will be provided before the class starts.