By Daniel J. Vargas
Photo by Beverly Barrett
High-resolution version available
Almost every doctor visit concludes this way: drawing vials of blood to run a series of tests to determine a patient's overall health, with results requiring up to two weeks. Imagine the same scenario, except now the patient only needs to produce a small amount of blood and can receive near-instantaneous results before leaving the doctor's office.
It may sound Hollywood futuristic, but the technology is closer than most people realize. And researchers like Assistant Professor Arjang Hassibi believe this breakthrough is only a handful of years away from materializing.
The electrical engineer is optimistic because he is at the forefront of this research area, called biosensors and bioelectronics, or more commonly referred to as "biochips." Soon, it will be possible for up to 100 tests now performed in large labs to be conducted on a single disposable integrated biochip cheaply and quickly – all using a miniature three-by-three millimeter silicon surface.
"Instead of using bulky instruments in core facilities, we will move to point-of-care detection using these silicon-based biochips," says Hassibi, who is trained as a circuit designer. "Probably in six years you will see these disposable instruments."
The most recognizable example of this technology today is glucose testing for diabetes patients. However, such portable devices do not exist for the detection of bacteria or viruses, cancer or water toxins, and that made Hassibi wonder why not. Granted, these tests he's envisioning are significantly more complicated than glucose testers, but he feels they are — without a doubt — attainable.
"This is not a 'Beam me up, Scotty' program," Hassibi says, quoting a popular catch phrase from the science fiction TV show Star Trek. "This is a real project, and it is doable."
Since arriving at the Cockrell School two years ago, Hassibi has been laying the groundwork for a program to achieve what he deems the "holy grail" &ndashl taking the laboratory's microscopes, imaging systems and other bulky, expensive equipment and miniaturizing their functions into a biochip for point-of-care use in a doctor's office or home. This has meant building relationships with other departments and disciplines such as the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology because the project involves significant biochemistry and chemistry in addition to circuit design, microelectronics and signal processing.
"These two years have been kicking the tires making sure we can answer these two questions: 'Are the expertise and facilities that we need here at UT?' and 'Do we have access to them?'" he queries. "The answers are 'Yes' and 'Yes.'"
Dean Neikirk, professor of electrical engineering who is working with Hassibi on the biosensor program, easily sees the practical, everyday applications.
"The main benefits to an everyday person would include quicker, more convenient and less expensive medical testing," Neikirk says of the biosensor program
While the biosensor concept — as a whole — is easy to comprehend, the creation of a integrated biochip that can interact with and analyze a complex biological sample such as blood or water is a more complicated and sensitive process.
"That's the part where the life sciences and natural sciences come in and help us build these systems," Hassibi says. "The biochips are basically hybrid systems with biological and biochemical aspects to them as well as an electronic system."
Hassibi says while the design, fabrication and testing of the integrated circuits require electrical engineers, biochemists must validate the circuits in the labs.
"The electronic part is solved," Hassibi says. "The challenge is how to make it into a chemical sensor. We have to merge these two."
Basically what his team would create is an "open platform" for a tester that can be tailored and programmed to detect certain bio-markers of specific types of cancer or other diseases such as bacterial and viral infections.
"It's a huge, huge project and that's why you need people from different disciplines to come together," Hassibi says, adding that the biosensors also have applications in environmental monitoring and bio-threat detection.
Hassibi believes the university is two years ahead of other academic institutions in the area of integrated circuits for such biosensors. If all goes as planned, he believes commercialization can occur in three years, with the biosensors entering the consumer market three years after that.
Without any hesitation, Hassibi says: "It's not fictitious."