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FLUSENSOR

„Research and development works on an innovative, ultra-sensitive, fast and cheap micro-test for detecting the influenza virus – FLUSENSOR”
(acronym: FLUSENSOR)

Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Regional Operational Programme for Mazowieckie Voivodeship 2014-2020
PRIORITY AXIS I: USE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY IN ECONOMY
MEASURE 1.2: Enterprise research and development activity

Total cost: 5 660 842,28 PLN (w tym 1 977 198,84 PLN wkładu własnego)
EU Contribution: 398 640,00 PLN, wkład własny: 99 660,00 PLN
Duration: 01/10/2016 – 30/09/2018

Principal Investigator: dr inż. Dawid Nidzworski – SensDX Sp. z o.o.
Principal Investigator (WRC EIT+): dr hab. Małgorzata Krzyżowska
Project Consortium:

  1. SensDX Sp. z o.o.– Consortium Leader
  2. Wrocławskie Centrum Badań EIT+ Sp. z o.o.
  3. Instytut Techologii Elektronowej Oddział Kraków

Influenza is one of the most common viral infectious diseases and a major cause of morbidity and mortality in many regions of the world, including Poland. Due to high virulence and adaptive capabilities influenza virus is one of the world’s most dangerous pathogens. World Health Organization estimates there are 330 million to 1.575 billion people suffering from influenza every year, 3-5 million people suffer from its acute symptoms and 500.000 up to a million people die every year from flu. Despite the increasing role of diagnosis in the modern medicine and ever better diagnostic and therapy options, the need to create a cheap, fast and easy test detecting influenza virus with a very high sensitivity, has not still been accomplished.
The aim of the project is to develop a prototype of an innovative FLUSENSOR test – miniaturized, fast, ultra-sensitive and cheap tool detecting all flu virus serotypes. The product will be recommended for use both at home and in surgeries and laboratories premises.
The basic element of the microsensor is a diamond electrode mixed with boron (BDD) where the chemically modified layer will be coated with anti-M1 antibodies (and anti-mucin as an internal control). In the next step of the process, unspecific reactions will be eliminated after incubation in a BSA solution.
The FLUSENSOR device will detect 5-10 particles of influenza virus in a throat swab (with 99.9% analytical sensitivity compared with molecular methods) in less than 5 minutes, in line with the assumption underlying the proposed technical perspective. The ability to read the result on the screen of a computer, smartphone or tablet and use an information system to track the progress of flu virus infections in the world in real time, as well as simulating the progress of the possible epidemic spread is an innovation on a global scale.