"Design of Aptasensors for Detection of Airborne Viral Pathogens"

Abbey Koneru, MSE PhD Candidate 

Advisor: Professor Lia Stanciu

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ABSTRACT

Each year airborne viral diseases infect millions of people, creating a heavy annual burden on the global population. Due to the ease of transfer from person to person, largely owed to the ability of viral particles to both travel and remain suspended in air for long times and distances, early detection of these diseases is vital to slowing spread. Low-cost detection devices utilizing biosensor-based platforms for sensitive and selective detection of these diseases provide great potential in achieving this. With the development of biosensors, aptamers are an ideal entity to be used as the biorecognition element as they are robust, relatively inexpensive, and can be quickly synthesized to accommodate a variety of immobilization options with high affinities to a wide range of targets, unlike antibodies. Additionally, achieving a multiplexed detection device using aptasensing can be more readily achieved due to the wide range of targets for which an aptamer can be synthesized to have affinity for, which can potentially lead to better detection outcomes when used in conjunction with one another. With the wide range of surface immobilization options, the use of aptamers as bioreceptors can be easily translated to both optical and electrochemical-based devices, the most commonly used biosensor platforms for viral airborne-based diseases. To increase sensitivity and selectivity outcomes for both optical and electrochemical biosensors, the use of functionalized nanomaterials can be implemented as the transducing element of the system. Among the benefits of nanomaterials, by increasing the specific surface area of the active material, a resultant increase in selectivity and sensitivity outcomes can be accomplished through an increase in the number of surface sites for aptamer attachment. With the use of novel material solutions to increase detection outcomes, a tradeoff is typically incurred with increased fabrication complexity and increased costs. Consideration must be taken in the design of aptasensors for airborne viral pathogens to maximize detection outcomes for earliest disease identification, while remaining affordable and simple to use for increased accessibility.