Nanoscience Transports Medical Labs on a Chip

Sensors that track tuberculosis, botulism and other neurotoxins. Diagnostic devices that monitor a patient’s health, including cancer detection, from great distances. Hydrocarbon detectors that safeguard susceptible children and adults from entering harsh atmospheric environments.

The list grows as Albany NanoTech (ANT), the research arm of UAlbany’s Institute for Materials, targets the design and deployment of System-on-a-Chip (SOC) chemical and biological sensors that function in handy, portable packages.

SOC sensors will have integrated logic and memory systems for data analyses, wireless communications and positioning systems for both data transmission and the subsequent dispatchment of healthcare response teams, and device packaging to enable their operation in a variety of operating environments, said Michael Carpenter, a UAlbany nanoscientist.

“Utilizing three-dimensional chips that incorporate new principles of interconnect and architecture, our goal at ANT is to ultimately yield an integrated, chemical/biological ‘lab-on-a chip,’” said Carpenter. “This technology will enable healthcare professionals to perform critical and inter-related functions that meet current and next generation medical standards. It will also satisfy commercial and even, by detecting hydrocarbons in soil, air and water, serve homeland security needs.”

Key to ANT’s efforts to develop SOC devices is partnerships with leading industry, academic and governmental institutions. These alliances are producing a multi-faceted program that will establish the critical technologies necessary to produce chemical/biosensors for toxin and disease detection, blood pressure and DNA sequencing. Such programs include, “Cell-in-a-Well” biosensors for botulism and other neurotoxins, “Parallel Detection of Proteins in DNA Sequencing,” a cantilever-based tuberculosis sensor (awarded by the World Health Organization), and development of “smart, compact remote controlled photonic sensing and diagnostic devices.” This last innovation is being developed in partnership with several research organizations for applications that will include remote health monitoring, bacteria detection, chemical sensing, and cancer screening.

SOC devices capable of providing “remote patient care” capabilities are being weighed with great interest at Northeast Health, the Capital Region’s largest and most comprehensive, not-for-profit network of healthcare, supportive housing and community services. Based in Troy, Northeast Health encompasses the operations of two hospitals, a primary care network, nursing homes and other senior facilities, and schools of nursing.

Northeast Health recently created an “Office of Remote Care Technology” under the leadership of Dr. James Reed, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Medical Officer. “We see nanotechnology playing a leading role in the future of healthcare,” said Reed. “As care for chronic conditions is increasingly rendered outside institutions, nanotechnology will create a quantum leap in the science of remote care technology.

“At the same time, nanotechnology will play a fundamental role in solving the largest obstacle currently facing healthcare in our community: the staffing crisis. We see a partnership between the developers of this technology and the providers of healthcare as essential to realizing nanotechnology’s full potential in the healthcare industry.”

The list of ANT’s industry partners and beneficiaries — ongoing and potential — grows as well. Leading among the former is General Electric and its Global Research Center in nearby Niskayuna. One of the first joint projects for the University and GE involves the use of nanocomposite material known as Gallium Nitride (AlGaN) to produce optoelectronic devices for harsh environment sensors such as solar-blind ultraviolet photodetectors that will control the flame in combustion turbines. The project, awarded a New York State Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) grant, would dramatically reduce nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide emissions from turbines while increasing their fuel efficiency and power output.

Collaborations with large and small companies like GE, MTI Instruments and Evident Technologies, Inc., on joint chemical sensor programs are rapidly expanding with a focus on the detection of hydrocarbons. Albany NanoTech’s work with sensors for hydrocarbons focuses on developing nanostructured materials that are far more sensitive to targeted chemicals than conventional sensors. By offering advanced detection of hydrocarbons in soil, water, air and even molds and bacteria, such sensors will find many uses for improving indoor and outdoor air quality for medically at-risk individuals, and enhancing homeland security for all.

Working in 2001 with the American Lung Association (ALA) and New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, NYS Assemblyman Richard Brodsky helped created “CASTLE” — Clean Air Sensor Technology for a Livable Environment — at Albany NanoTech. CASTLE’s $2.5 million funding aids ANT in conjunction with the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and Queens College’s Center for Biology of Natural Systems in developing improved air-monitoring technology to determine the causal relationships between exposure to air contaminants and childhood asthma episodes.