By using readily available chemicals and lab instruments, the NYU Abu Dhabi team has created a platform that can be used to create several different diagnostic platforms. By first functionalizing a region of a regular microscope slide using (3-Aminopropyl)triethoxysilane (APTES), the team allowed Gold Nanoparticles (AuNPs) to bind to the amine group on the surface.
In our team’s project this was then followed by the addition of the Amyloid Beta aptamer. This can however be modified to suit the needs of any diagnostic tool depending on the specific aptamer used. A 3D printed case was used to prevent background light interference and caused the incident light to be only on the functionalized region. As a major theme of our project was to increase accessibility of the platform, special consideration was taken to minimize its overall costs.
Future work to improve this diagnostic platform is to make it a standalone piece which will have its own light source and a calibrated photodetector.
