A Photonic Crystal-based, Non-Invasive, Color-Changing Sensor for Detection of Salivary SOD2, for Diagnosis of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Overview

Andrew Bramante Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer and is regarded as one of the most aggressive cancers. Over 800,000 people contract HCC each year and around 700,000 die, making HCC the 3rd leading cause of cancer death in the world despite only being the 6th most common. Currently, the most common means of diagnosing HCC are through costly imaging tests, such as CT and MRI, as well as potentially traumatizing and invasive blood tests and liver biopsies, all which require trained personnel. As such, an easily readable sensor that could measure superoxide dismutase 2 (SOD2) levels in saliva in a low-cost, noninvasive way is highly desirable, and is the focus of this research. To begin, a photonic crystal microchip with opal structure was created through the spin-coating of monodispersed latex spheres (P-(St-MMA-AA)) onto a PDMS glass substrate. This microchip was then dipped in an aqueous prepolymer solution containing the salivary biomarker, SOD2, pulled out, and cleansed under 100 W UV, acetic acid, sodium dodecyl sulfate solution, and deionized water. It has been found that the PC microchips exhibit a change in intensity when exposed to SOD2 with a ratio of 0.14 (clean SOD2 chip) to 0.34 (chip with SOD2), which was measured through a UV-Vis spectrometer and SEM.

Awards (1)

• 3rd Place Biomedical Sciences

Competition history

• JSHS 2020 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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