Measures down to '1 in 1000 trillion moles'... Early Disease Diagnosis

Successful Development of Ultra-High Sensitivity Real-Time Biosensing Device
Enabling Early Diagnosis of Acute Myocardial Infarction, Dementia, and Various Infectious Diseases

Structure of the Ultra-Sensitive Real-Time Biosensing Device Developed by the Research Team

[Asia Economy Reporter Junho Hwang] Domestic researchers have developed a precision measurement device capable of measuring at the femtomole level, which is one quadrillionth of a mole. This device can measure specific substances in blood or bodily fluids, and is expected to contribute to the prevention of acute myocardial infarction and dementia.

The Nano Bio Sensor Team and Semiconductor Measurement Equipment Team at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science announced on the 3rd that they have developed equipment capable of real-time measurement of substance amounts (molecular weight) at the femtomole level. The related research results were published this month in the international journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

Simple and precise measurement of trace substances

Ultra-sensitive real-time biosensing device developed by the research team

This device can simply measure specific substances in blood and bodily fluids.

The device optically amplifies signals without requiring separate signal amplification or cleaning processes. It reflects light at a specific angle on a silicon surface to sensitively measure changes in specific substances. To minimize interference signals caused by light scattering, the research team independently constructed an ellipsometry measurement system. The constructed device is unaffected by refractive index changes due to temperature differences in the analysis solution or surrounding environment, measuring only thickness changes on the silicon sensor chip surface caused by antigen-antibody reactions.

Using this device, substances such as troponin, which appear in the early stages of acute myocardial infarction, can be quickly measured. Troponin is found in blood at levels below the picomole (one trillionth of a mole). Acute myocardial infarction is a disease where coronary arteries are blocked by blood clots, causing a lack of oxygen and nutrients and resulting in necrosis of heart muscle. The golden time for treatment is within 2 hours, requiring early diagnosis and rapid emergency response. The mole (mol) is the SI unit of amount of substance, representing the number of specified entities in a system.

Early diagnosis possible for diseases such as acute myocardial infarction and dementia

The research team is conducting experiments using an ultra-sensitive real-time biosensing device.

It can also be used for early diagnosis of dementia. It is possible to measure detailed concentration changes at the femtomole level for beta-amyloid and tau proteins, substances causing dementia present in the blood, enabling early diagnosis. Currently, most dementia diagnoses are made through brain imaging or cerebrospinal fluid analysis. However, these tests are expensive and sample collection is difficult.

Senior Researcher Hyunmo Cho said, "Dementia often progresses to an untreatable stage by the time abnormal symptoms appear," adding, "By utilizing this technology capable of measuring extremely small and detailed concentration changes, early diagnosis of dementia will become possible using only blood."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.