Continuous Monitoring of Diabetes biomarkers (CoMoDi)

Recently, metal oxides have attracted great attention as materials for electrochemical biosensors due to their low cost, functional biocompatibility, excellent chemical stability in biofluids and easy anchoring of biorecognition molecules. Drawbacks limiting their practical use in devices are the low conductivity and electron transfer kinetics. Nanostructural forms of metal oxides could overcome these limitations. The main goal of this PhD project is to modify electrochemical electrodes with novel nanostructured thin layers of metal oxides (focus will be on vanadium and titanium oxides). Electrochemical performance will be further boosted by adding mobile ionic defects and by doping or hybridization with metals. Deposition techniques will be critically selected to be compatible with the process flow of a microfabricated platform. Examples are sputtering, electrodeposition, chemical vapour deposition and sol-gel methods. The assessment will be based on the structural, microscopic, and electrochemical characterisation. The student will use the advanced facilities of both the Micro- and Nanosystems (ESAT) and the Functional Nanosystems (DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY) laboratories. The electrochemical performance of the novel engineered electrodes will be optimized towards glucose and cortisol detection to demonstrate enhanced direct electrocatalysis and assay-based detection, respectively. Electrode conditioning/regeneration protocols directly inside biofluids will be developed. This research activity establishes the foundations of continuous implantable monitors with multiple year-lasting operational lifetime and will pave the way for a multitude of clinical scenarios.