Rugged, Hand-held, and Array-based Traumatic Brain Injury Biomarker Biosensor

On the battlefield, 30-40% of all injuries have a head injury component. A field medic must quickly assess the extent of brain injury for rapid triage of the injured soldier. Researchers have identified traumatic brain injury (TBI) related biomarkers that appear in blood some time after trauma has occurred. Lynntech proposes to develop a handheld, rugged, reagentless, inexpensive, and versatile (protein, DNA, RNA) detection system for TBI biomarkers in whole blood. The detection system will uniquely incorporate: (1) Specific recognition of the TBI biomarkers in a disposable cartridge format, (2) Diffraction-based detection, and (3) PDA interface control. The diffraction-based sensor utilizes changes in diffracted light intensity upon the absorption of the biomarkers onto specific areas of a patterned surface to quantifiably determine levels of the markers. Dr. Neivandt, at the University of Maine, will be instrumental in developing the recognition element for the TBI diffraction-based biosensor. Phase I will focus primarily on the design and assembly of a breadboard prototype of the detection system that will be evaluated through in vitro testing using 3 representative TBI biomarker recognition elements. Phase II research will deliver a field-deployable prototype device for sensing an array of TBI biomarkers.