About the Project
The group of dr. Peeters focuses on the development of novel bio-sensing platforms that can be used for commercial applications (see www.marloespeeters.nl). The candidate is expected to continue with recent work, which includes the incorporating of sensing elements onto screen-printed electrodes.
In 2012, van Grinsven et al. found an anomaly in the thermal resistance when DNA was heated up. This could be correlated to the melting of DNA; the strand undergoes a change in conformation going from a well-defined elongated brush to a spaghetti-coiled structure. The DNA surface area is therefore increased by 150% and since it acts as an insulating layer, this will result in an increase in the overall thermal resistance. In recent years, this method has been extended to the screening of cells with Surface Imprinted Polymers, the detection of neurotransmitters with Molecularly Imprinted Polymers, and the measuring of phase changes in lipid vesicles. An overview of the heat-transfer method (HTM) can be found in ref [1], but since this technique has the advantages of being fast, straight-forward, and low-cost (only requiring two thermometers and an adjustable heat source, making it perfect as a home-made setup), there is an ongoing search to find novel applications.
Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs) are polymeric receptors, also called ‘plastic’ antibodies, which have nanocavities that can detect their template molecules with high affinity. It is a new and emerging technique, and dr. Peeters has demonstrated neurotransmitter detection by combining MIPs with the heat-transfer method. By binding of the neurotransmitters to the polymeric MIP layer, the cavities in the porous structure of the MIP are blocked and the thermal resistance increases. This effect is referred to as the “pore-blocking model”.
Recently, these Molecularly Imprinted Polymers were incorporated onto screen-printed electrodes with a direct functionalization method. This is a promising new method, since it allows for mass-production, but the thermal detection method needs to be optimized in order to enhance neurotransmitter detection. A couple of important factors are the type of screen-printed electrode and the thickness of the layer. The candidate will evaluate these properties and subsequently use these screen-printed electrodes to measure neurotransmitters (such as dopamine, serotonin, and histamine) in biological samples. The project is a combination of engineering and chemistry and will be adopted to the applicant’s background. From engineering terms, the set up needs to be adapted and automated to measure these novel screen-printed electrodes. From a chemistry perspective, Molecularly Imprinted Polymers are polymers that need to be synthesized and optimized for the use of several neurotransmitters. This was already done for dopamine, but it would be interesting to also evaluate other template molecules such as histamine, testosterone and cortisol.
[1] van Grinsven, K. Eersels, M. Peeters et al., The heat-transfer method: a versatile low-cost, label-free, fast, and user-friendly readout platform for biosensor applications, 2014, ACS AMI, 6, 16, 13309-13318.
[2] M. Peeters, P. Csipai, B. Geerets, A. Weustenraed, B. van Grinsven, J. Gruber, W. De Ceuninck, T.J. Cleij, F.J. Troost, P. Wagner, Heat-transfer based detection of L-nicotine, histamine, and serotonin using molecularly imprinted polymers as biomimetic receptors, 2013, Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 405, 6453-6460.
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