Medical Design Briefs - November 2024 - 41

sensor. This change in reflection helps
detect the presence of the molecule.
Unlike traditional biosensors that rely
on biological elements like antibodies or
enzymes, this UCF-developed device
uses a specially designed aptamer - a
synthetic DNA strand - to precisely detect
dopamine. This approach not only
makes the sensor more cost-effective and
easier to store, but it also allows the device
to detect dopamine directly from
unprocessed blood without any preparation.
This breakthrough could be particularly
valuable in areas with limited medical
resources, as it simplifies the
detection process and opens the door
for diagnosing other conditions using
the same technology.
Researchers were able to target specific
molecules by coating the sensor's active
area with an aptamer specifically created
to latch onto a particular biomarker
with great accuracy.
The study's results highlight the potential
of plasmonic aptasensors using
aptamers to sense for developing rapid
and accurate diagnostic tools for disease
monitoring, medical diagnostics, and
targeted therapies, the researchers say.
" There have been numerous demonstrations
of plasmonic biosensors but all
of them fall short in detecting the relevant
biomarker directly from unprocessed
biological fluids, such as blood, "
says Aritra Biswas ('12 MS, '24 PhD), the
lead author of the paper.
The new research builds upon the
team's previous work developing a dopamine
detector by replacing cerium oxide
nanoparticles with DNA-based aptamers,
enhancing the sensor's
selectivity and expanding its applicability
to detect dopamine directly in diverse
biological samples without needing prior
sample preparation.
" This concept can be further explored
in the detection of different biomolecules
directly from unprocessed blood,
such as proteins, viruses, DNA, " says
Chanda. " There may be great interest in
developing countries where access to analytical
laboratories is limited. "
The research was performed by students
in Chanda's lab at UCF and are
co-authors of the study: Sang Lee('22
MS), postdoctoral fellows Pablo CencilloAbad
and Manobina Karmakar, biomedical
sciences undergraduate students Jay
Patel and Francisco Hernandez Guitierrez,
and physics doctoral student Mahdi
Soudi.
Chanda has joint appointments in
UCF's NanoScience Technology Center,
department of physics and CREOL,
the College of Optics and Photonics.
He received his doctorate in
photonics from the University of Toronto
and worked as a postdoctoral
fellow at the University of Illinois at
Urbana- Champaign.
This article was written by Eddy
Duryea, University of Central Florida.
For more information, contact Debashis
Chanda at debashis.chanda@ucf.edu or
visit www.ucf.edu.
Nanoparticle Technology Helps Treat Hearing Loss
Magnetic nanoparticles
are used as a delivery
system for drugs to reach
the inner ear.
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH
Just as a business needs an effective
and reliable service to deliver its goods
to customers, medications need an effective
delivery system to get them to the
specific area of the body where they can
have an impact.
The University of Cincinnati's Daniel
Sun, MD, has received a career development
award of just more than $1 million
from the National Institutes of Health's
National Institute on Deafness and Other
Communication Disorders to research
the potential of using magnetic nanoparticles
as a delivery system for drugs to
reach the inner ear and treat hearing loss.
Aside from often ineffective steroids,
there are currently no drugs approved
by the Food and Drug Administration to
treat hearing loss, and getting the medications
into the inner ear, where hearing
loss occurs, is a major hurdle.
Medical Design Briefs, November 2024
Sun says a breakthrough in drug delivery combined with the new medications being developed could open a new
world for noninvasive treatment of hearing loss. (Credit: UC Health)
" There are a lot of interesting medications
that are in the pipeline that
have a lot of potential to transform the
way we treat hearing loss and allow us
to delay or even reverse hearing loss, "
says Sun, the Myles L. Pensak, MD, Endowed
Professor in Neurotology and
www.medicaldesignbriefs.com
Skull Base Surgery, director of the Division
of Neurotology, neurotology fellowship
program director, and associate
professor of otolaryngology in the
University of Cincinnati College of
Medicine, and a UC Health physician.
" But we don't have a good way to get
41

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Medical Design Briefs - November 2024

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