Middle Tennessee State University http://mtsu.edu and Tecport Optics www.tecportoptics.com have signed a licensing agreement to commercialize the university’s biosensor technology as a medical diagnostic tool to be used by research labs and point-of-care health professionals.
Dr. Nabil El-Hag, Tecport’s Vice Chairman said, “The long term goal is to use biosensor technology as a mainstay in point-of-care medical diagnostics, not only in doctors’ offices and clinics, but also in the local drugstore. The will mean an opportunity to participate in the fast growing $40 billion plus medical diagnostic market.
The technology is based on specially designed multilayers, alternating thin films of silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide of precise thicknesses coated on a glass microscope slide. These multilayers support electromagnetic waves that can travel along the surface and detect extremely small changes, such as the addition of one layer of protein or antibody molecules on slide surfaces.
MTSU professor Dr. Bill Robertson, the inventor said, “With the increase of disease-resistant bacteria and new strains of viruses killing over 700,000 people worldwide each year, speeding up the drug discovery process is an urgent priority. Appropriately prepared slides where changes can be noted could indicate the identifiable markets of specific diseases.
An interdisciplinary team from MTSU developed the technology with support from the National Science foundation www.nsf.gov and the Department of Homeland Security www.dhs.gov. Dr. Robertson added, “The growth of personalized medicine creates a need for faster and better ways of diagnosing diseases and individual responses to pharmaceutical treatment. Also drug discovery can be shortened when a rapid and more accurate way of screening for biological changes is used in the process.”