Design and Refinement of a Colour-based Metabolomic Biosensor System

This project involves designing a portable device for measuring concentrations of certain metabolites in a person’s blood or urine. This is an easy-to-use device that connects to a smartphone to display a final result based on measurements of multiple components to generate a specific health diagnosis. Different tests can be run on the same device. The device works by loading custom-made fluidic chips into the device which contains dried chemical reactions. The chip moves the urine or blood to the reaction sites, where a reaction occurs causing a colour change proportional to the amount of the specific metabolite in that blood or urine. The device can measure this colour change and relate that to a concentration automatically, and interpret the results.

Faculty Supervisor:

David S Wishart;David Coltman

Student:

Scott MacKay

Partner:

Tricca

Discipline:

Biology

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

University of Alberta