2006 Award Winners
Award-winning project: Miniaturized fluorescence measurement module for medical diagnostics
Project partners: Sensovation AG, Steinbeis Transfer Center Medical Biophysics/Heidelberg
Fluorescence staining enables the highly specific and rapid detection of abnormal cells. Medical diagnostics therefore benefits greatly from this technology. However, its use has so far been limited, particularly in developing countries, as the analytical systems are large, delicate and expensive. The compact FluoMi measurement module overcomes these obstacles.
At present, the use of fluorescence staining for medical diagnostics, such as in the case of AIDS, is largely restricted to centralised laboratory facilities. Carrying out the immunological processes, as well as analysing the fluorescence-stained samples, requires a complex, expensive infrastructure and specialised staff. With the development of cost-effective biochips, the immunological process steps have been significantly simplified in recent years. However, in order to be able to use biochips directly at the patient’s side, at the ‘point-of-care’ (POC) – given the weak medical infrastructure in many countries – the development of new analytical systems is necessary: there is a need for more robust and compact systems that carry out the analyses automatically, are easier to operate and can be manufactured at significantly lower cost. Sensovation AG, with the support of the Steinbeis Transfer Centre for Medical Biophysics in Heidelberg, has developed a cost-effective, miniaturised fluorescence measurement module. The experts at this centre were the most suitable transfer partners for the project due to their outstanding expertise at the interface between medicine, physics and biology. This expertise enabled them, in close collaboration with Sensovation AG, to resolve the technically very challenging issues of miniaturisation.
The microscope module, known as FluoMi, images the fluorescence emitted by a sample using a completely newly designed optical system onto a high-resolution CCD sensor specially adapted for this purpose. The FluoMi can be integrated directly into a portable device, thus forming the centrepiece of a mobile diagnostic system.
The two partners jointly developed strategies and concepts that allow for relatively wide tolerances in the individual components, with calibration at the system level only carried out after the module has been integrated. Only in this way was it possible to realise the FluoMi within the cost constraints. The newly developed product attracted considerable attention at international conferences and, thanks to its wide range of applications in medicine, food analysis and hazardous substance analysis, has the potential to become a major commercial success for Sensovation AG.