Clinical Detection of Diagnostic Biomarker Panels Using Microfluidic Electrochemical Immunoarrays

Cancer is a worldwide infliction. Cancer does not discriminate. Cancer does not care if you are young or old, rich or poor, disabled or in the prime of your life. It can be caused by genetics, environmental factors and/or lifestyle. The challenge, how do we diagnose and treat such a dynamic disease? Cancer detection is expensive, invasive, inaccurate and lacks sensitivity. New methods that rely on measurements of analytes in solution for detection and quantification are promising alternatives. Panels of protein biomarkers may aid in personalized diagnosis as protein levels in patients are often upregulated or down regulated in relation to a specified disease. For the medical field this provides opportunities to bring cancer detection to clinical practice as it will enable physicians’ access to blood, saliva, or urine bioassays for screening, as well as monitoring progression and response to therapy. The objectives of this thesis are to utilize new technology in microfluidic fabrication, 3D printing and nanomaterial synthesis for ELISA alternatives. The sensors are developed to be sensitive, rapid, inexpensive and multiplexed for point of care diagnostics. These technically facile immunoassays in human patient serum comprise a multivariable approach for statistically improving the probability of diagnosing and differentiating forms of cancer