Assay and Portable Device for the Assessment of an ALS Biomarker

A PhD student from the IMDEA Nanoscience research institute in Spain will travel to Canada for an internship at the University of British Columbia. This internship will initiate a new collaboration to develop materials, methods, and devices for detecting a protein malfunction in white blood cells that reflects the emergence of the neurodegenerative disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This disease affects hundreds of thousands of people, has a poorly understood cause, and no cure. The proposed research will create a way of imaging the protein malfunction within blood cells, as a mirror for what is occurring in brain cells during ALS onset, using a smartphone and brightly fluorescent nanoparticles. The internship will enable an effective exchange of knowledge between one group with the resources and expertise for studying ALS biology (Spain) and one group with the tools and expertise for creating the nanoparticles and imaging device (Canada), enabling advances that would not be possible with the collaboration. The technology developed as an outcome of this internship and collaboration will be an important step toward an accessible, effective, and earlier diagnosis of ALS, and will be a valuable tool for searching for and evaluating potential therapies and drugs for ALS.

Faculty Supervisor:

Russ Algar

Student:

Partner:

IMDEA Nanociencia Institute

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program: