Researchers from the University of Bath have developed a new method to detect microRNAs in blood serum, leading to a new class of biosensors for early cancer diagnosis and prognosis. There is an increasing consensus that microRNAs in blood can be used as powerful indicators of the presence of cancer as well as the stage of the disease, enabling better management and treatment of different types of cancer. However, given the low levels of microRNAs present in blood, their use as cancer biomarkers requires the development of simple and effective analytical methods.

The group of Dr Pedro Estrela from the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, together with researchers from Bath's Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology and from the University of São Paulo, Brazil developed a highly sensitive electrochemical platform for the detection of microRNAs. The platform uses synthetic biomolecules called peptide nucleic acids to capture the microRNAs and gold nanoparticles to induce measurable electrical capacitance changes. The sensors allow the detection of minute levels of microRNAs in blood serum, down to the ranges present in patients with prostate cancer.

The work, published in the journal Scientific Reports from the Nature Publishing Group, was mainly funded by the Marie Curie Initial Training Network PROSENSE led by the University of Bath. The collaboration with microRNA experts from the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology was made possible through seedcorn funding from the Cancer Research at Bath (CR@B) network, while the collaboration with the University of São Paulo was partly funded by FAPESP and the University of Bath through the SPRINT programme.

Dr Despina Moschou has recently been appointed as a 50th Anniversary Prize Fellow in Bioelectronics within the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath.

Despina has a MEng in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a PhD in Microelectronic Technology. Since 2010, her main research focus has been to apply her microfabrication and microelectronic device expertise in the development of disposable Lab-On-a-Chip systems for bioanalytical applications (molecular and immunoassay-based Point-of-Care diagnostic devices). For the past 6 years she has been pursuing the Lab-on-Printed Circuit Board approach, in an effort to realize disposable, mass-manufacturable Lab-on-Chip microsystems for the first time. Her interests also include inkjet printing technologies, adding further functionality to biomedical diagnostic systems.

The University of Bath hosted the PROSENSE Conference on Prostate Cancer Diagnosis on 12-13 September 2016 – an event part of the University of Bath 50th Anniversary celebrations.

The conference was designed to bring together academics, clinicians and industry colleagues, highlighting recent advances in the field of biosensor development to improve prostate cancer diagnosis and prognosis. It also highlighted some of the work done within the Marie Curie Initial Training Network PROSENSE, coordinated by Dr Pedro Estrela and which now comes to an end.

PROSENSE is a Marie Curie Initial Training Network on "Cancer Diagnosis: Parallel Sensing of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers" (European Commission FP7, 2012-2016). It aims at training a new generation of young scientists in the interdisciplinary techniques and methods required to meet the major challenges in the development of diagnostic tools for prostate cancer.

The scientific objectives of PROSENSE are to improve sensitivity, selectivity, robustness and speed of biosensing technologies for the simultaneous screening of biomarkers. By coupling these technologies with novel and bespoke high affinity biorecognition molecules onto lab-on-a-chip devices, viable fit-for-purpose PCa biosensing products can be developed. The devices will also allow increasing the understanding of clinical relevance of PCa biomarkers and elucidate how the concurrent analysis of biomarkers can inform therapy.

Over 40 UK and international academic and clinical researchers gathered in Bath to discuss current advances in prostate cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Keynote talks were given by Prof Dolores Dolores Cahill (University College Dublin, Ireland) on "Developments in autoantibody profiling to understand diseases, including autoimmune disease and cancer" and Prof Noel Clarke (The Christie and Salford Royal NHS Trust) on "Diagnosis and prognosis in prostate cancer – combining novel diagnostics and imaging to improve outcome".

The conference dinner took place in the impressive Banqueting Room at the Guildhall.

The University of Bath hosted a four-day workshop for early career researchers from Universities in the UK and Turkey to promote scientific collaborations between the two countries. The workshop entitled "Electrochemical nucleic acid based biosensors and microfluidic devices for healthcare applications" (5-8 September 2016) was funded by the British Council and TÜBİTAK through the Newton-Katip Çelebi Fund (Researcher Links Workshop scheme).

The workshop was coordinated by Dr Pedro Estrela (Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering, University of Bath) and Prof Mehmet Özsöz (Izmir Katip Celebi University) with the help of four established researchers from Imperial College London, Cranfield, Ege and Bilkent Universities, who acted as mentors for the early career researchers. In total 25 young lecturers / postdoctoral researchers from 10 UK Universities and 10 Turkish Universities participated in the event to discuss applications and future challenges of nucleic acid-based electrochemical biosensors and microfluidic devices for biomedical diagnosis.

The workshop comprised a range of plenary talks by the coordinators and mentors, short talks and posters from the early career researchers, talks about funding opportunities, brainstorming sessions, group work sessions and social events. The workshop enabled establishing bi-lateral collaborations with several project proposals being subsequently in preparation for submission to current and future Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund calls. New UK-UK and Turkey-Turkey links have also been developed.

Dr Ben Metcalfe has recently been appointed to the post of Lecturer within the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering at the University of Bath.

Ben holds a PhD in biomedical microelectronics and has research interests in many areas of low-power signal processing for biomedical applications. Recent work has included the design of implantable neural recording interfaces for detecting bladder fullness in patients with spinal cord injury using CMOS technology. His interests focus on the device-level integration of novel sensing payloads with efficient data fusion and processing. Other projects include biologically inspired neuronal models and computing platforms, as well as the design of multi-array sensors for a wide range of biomedical applications.

Researchers from the University of Bath, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern publish in the journal Nano Letters the very first worldwide report on the development of an ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor employing DNA aptamers and memristive effect.

The strategy involves the modification of memristive silicon nanowires (NW) with DNA aptamers followed by monitoring the hysteretic properties of the device.

The nanofabricated memristive devices fabricated at EPFL were used to obtain the best ever-fabricated ultrasensitive electrochemical biosensor for the label-free detection protein-specific antigen (PSA) as a case study, which is a well-known biomarker for prostate cancer.

Dr Pedro Estrela from the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering said: "Our paper reports the development of a definitely new and innovative memristive aptasensor based on the potentiometric and impedimetric detection method. Such a strategy provides a detection technique that gives reliable and validated output data. The memristive aptasensor demonstrated an ultra-low detection limit, well below the clinically relevant range of PSA. Moreover, such devices based on silicon technology can be easily integrated into lab-on-a-chip and point-of-care formats for cancer diagnostics."

The work is of great significance for the field of label -free electrochemical nano-biosensors and, in particular, for the development of memristive aptasensors that can also address the well know issue of the early detection of cancer due to their possibility to detect extremely low traces of cancer markers in human tissues.