The potential of purines as a biomarker of ischaemia and hypoxia has been known since the 1970s, but their adoption as a diagnostic indicator of acute injury floundered as the technology to measure them in a practical way has not existed. Until now their measurement required extensive sample pre-treatment, followed by complex, time-consuming and expensive lab-based analytical methods. Our biosensor technology gets around these problems and ushers in the era of PoC purine measurement.
The platform for our biosensor technology is called SMARTChip. This sensor is an 8 mm x 50 mm x 1 mm ceramic strip with screen-printed electrodes. A simple process to prepare the sensor for use involves a calibration step (which also re-hydrates the sensor) before the finger-prick blood sample is applied to the end of the strip. Capillary action pulls the blood sample on to the sensor. The sampling process is directed, monitored and controlled by the SMARTChip reader’s software and the measurement takes approximately 3-5 mins.
