According to recent statistics of NHS Kidney Care, kidney disease costs the NHS over £1.5 billion per annum, more than breast, lung, colon and skin cancers combined. There are several specific/nonspecific biomarkers which are considered as signatures of kidney damage such as change in urine specific gravity, pH or change in the concentration of creatinine which has been considered as an indicator of renal function specifically after dialysis, thyroid malfunction and muscle damage. A number of conventional methods such as colorimetric, spectrophotometric and chromatographic are available for the determination of some of these parameters. Besides the advantages of being highly sensitive and selective, these methods have some drawbacks like timeconsuming, requirement of sample pre-treatment, high cost instrumental set-up and skilled persons to operate. Addressing this, here we will develop an optoelectronic biosensor starting from optimizing the choice of transducer to the development of highly specific biorecognitions layers. Specifically, the project aims to utilise the localised surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) technique and potentiometric techniques while incorporating some of the advanced biorecognitions strategies developed in NIBEC, Ulster University. Prototypes for both potentiometric and LSPR sensors will be developed and their feasibility studies for detecting kidney biomarkers will be performed within the scope of this project. This Supervisors should note that all projects must have at least two Ulster University supervisors and that priority in the main competition will be given to projects which include one new supervisor/ECR on the team. In addition, supervisors may only submit one Project Proposal per supervisory team for the main scholarship competition. multidisciplinary project will provide the candidate with comprehensive experience in nanofabrication, material characterisation, and design of novel electrochemical/optical sensing platforms. The suitable candidate should have completed his/her undergraduate degree in Physics, Biophysics, Electronics, Nanotechnology, or Biomedical Engineering or a closely related field. The candidate is also expected to have a keen interest in surface chemistry and instrumentation as the candidate will work closely with advanced material characterisation instrumentation team within Ulster.
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