Next-Generation Lateral Flow Assays for Cardiovascular Disease Diagnosis

The early diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases is crucial for improving patient outcomes and reducing healthcare costs. Current gold-standard diagnostics are costly and slow, relying on lab-based immunoassays that require sophisticated equipment and trained technicians. Additionally, these tests require the collection of invasive blood samples from patients. Consequently, there is an urgent and unmet need to develop point-of-care diagnostics that can perform rapid measurements at the patient’s location.

This project aims to develop polymer-based lateral flow assays integrated with microneedle arrays. The microneedle arrays will be 3D-printed using emerging stereolithography methods, enabling the extraction of biomarker-rich interstitial fluid from just beneath the skin in a minimally invasive manner. Lateral flow assays will be fabricated with innovative polymer receptors instead of antibodies, which will result in excellent sensing performance and high environmental stability. By combining microneedles with lateral flow assays, this project seeks to enable point-of-care diagnosis of critical cardiovascular diseases without the need for invasive blood draws or time-consuming laboratory analysis.

Your Role:

Our previous research has focused on developing novel polymer-based sensors for COVID-19 detection and diagnosing cardiovascular diseases. Using molecular imprinting, we developed polymer receptors immobilised to screen-printed electrodes to achieve accurate, rapid, and low-cost measurements. In this project, your role will be to advance this technology by adapting it for use in lateral flow assays, enabling point-of-care diagnosis. Moreover, you will use our state-of-the-art 3D printing facilitates to design and optimise microneedle arrays for interstitial fluid extraction. Your work will primarily involve polymer synthesis, stereolithography 3D printing, biosensor development, and various characterisation techniques.

The Environment:

The project offers significant potential for impactful and innovative research in a priority area for governments, industry, and healthcare. Newcastle University is a global leader in ageing and health research, making it an ideal location for this position. Furthermore, the project is highly multidisciplinary, involving collaboration with various academics, clinicians, and industrial partners.

Newcastle University is committed to being a fully inclusive Global University which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society. We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from everybody, regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, age, disability, gender identity, marital status/civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, as well as being open to flexible working practices.

Application enquires:

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/engineering/staff/profile/jakemcclements.html (jake.mcclements@newcastle.ac.uk)