Ph.D. Research Proposal Exam: George Banis

Friday, June 9, 2017
10:00 a.m.
1146 AV Williams Building

Ph.D. Research Proposal Exam: Non-Invasive Ingestible Sensor for Pancreatic Health Monitoring

Candidate: George E. Banis (BIOE/ISR)

Committee:

Professor Reza Ghodssi (Chair)

Professor William Bentley

Professor Ian White

Professor Peter Kofinas

Professor James Culver

Non-invasive microsystems are emerging as a means to address diagnostics challenges in healthcare due to the potential to retrieve information at the source and in a personalized approach. A variety of biomarkers are expressed in gastrointestinal (GI) secretions, such as those from the pancreas, that indicate the presence of early-stage pathologies such as pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and differentiate them at early stages from other conditions such as pancreatitis. Thus, innovative strategies to sample molecular information from these secretions would be of significant benefit to physicians in establishing an appropriate prognosis. The work proposed here aims to develop an integrated microsystem that, once ingested, will travel through the GI tract until it reaches the duodenum, where it will measure the activity of digestive enzymes and the presence of specific microRNAs from pancreatic secretions from sensitive and specific sensors. Subsequently, the measurements will be converted into the appropriate signals for wireless transmission to an external receiver, ideally a smartphone. My preliminary results indicate the feasibility of label-free electrochemical sensing of trypsin activity using biomaterial films, specifically gelatin, while in the presence of non-specific enzymes. Though the latter molecules inhibit the sensitivity of the sensor, I will be investigating various film modification strategies toward circumventing this challenge in Aim 1.

Additionally, an equivalent circuit model has been fit to our sensor components by analyzing the resulting impedance spectra, offering potential for applicability with alternative biomaterial films for sensing the other enzymes of interest. In Aim 2, I will be investigating electrochemical sensing methods of microRNAs, as well as reducing the influence of the digestive enzymes above to as to emulate sensing of untreated fluid secretions and establish feasibility. I will be testing the hypothesis that surface modifications in addition to immobilization of the conjugate sequence probe will allow for this reduction of enzymatic influence. In Aim 3, the sensors optimized from the previous aims will be integrated with off-the-shelf microelectronics and packaged within a 3D-printed capsule coated with a pH-soluble copolymer for targeted solution sampling. The microsystem will be tested in various conditions to establish its pH-dependent specificity and ability to transmit the measured signals with appropriate environmental controls. Successful completion of the proposed research will aid in shifting non-invasive GI diagnostics, both in academia regarding the manner with which molecular trends are observed during different pathologies, as well as clinically due to a reduction in the clinical interface required to obtain medically-relevant information.

 

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