Description: Miniaturised electrochemical or optical biosensor platforms for near-patient detection of disease biomarkers such as miRNA or breath volatiles.
Gooding is one of the world's most-cited biosensor scientists (inaugural editor-in-chief of ACS Sensors) and runs a group of over thirty researchers spanning surface chemistry, electrochemistry and nanomedicine. The sensing programme that matters here is the move from ensemble to digital, single-molecule-resolved detection: nanoparticle-tethered electrochemical sensors in which single binding events are counted rather than averaged, nanopore blockade sensors for protein biomarkers such as PSA, amplification-free nucleic-acid detection, and antifouling surface chemistries that make any of this work in real biological fluid. He has a strong commercialisation record (AgaMatrix glucose sensors). Positioned against the established body of NV-ensemble quantum sensing work — DEER, nanoscale NMR and T1 relaxometry protocols operating at pT/sqrt(Hz) field sensitivity — his single-molecule-counting philosophy is the biosensing analogue of moving from a pT/sqrt(Hz) NV ensemble to single-spin detection: in both cases the sensitivity gain comes from resolving individual events rather than improving an averaged signal. He is also the obvious collaborator for anyone trying to functionalise a diamond or nanoparticle quantum sensor for a real analyte.
Kelley designs nanostructured electrochemical biosensors -- including antifouling 'spiky' nanoelectrodes -- for amplification-free, point-of-care detection of nucleic acids and proteins (e.g. bacterial mRNA), aiming to replace slow, lab-based amplification assays with rapid electronic diagnostics deployable at the bedside.
O'Hare develops electrochemical and optical biosensors for point-of-care and near-patient diagnostics, including miRNA cancer biomarker detection and exhaled-breath-condensate analysis for respiratory and metabolic disease monitoring.
Soh's lab engineers aptamer- and SOMAmer-based electrochemical biosensors capable of real-time, continuous molecular measurement (drugs, metabolites, proteins) directly in living systems, aiming for closed-loop, quantitative point-of-care and in vivo diagnostics.
Whitesides' group pioneered soft lithography and paper-based microfluidics, and has long applied these tools to low-cost point-of-care diagnostic biosensors for global health settings. Included as a borderline, not-preferred biosensing case: the sensing target (colorimetric/electrochemical assays) is compelling but device-fabrication-centric rather than a cutting-edge-sensitivity physical sensor.