South Korean researchers claim that they have developed a new diagnostic sensor that uses a drop of blood to detect cancer with great sensitivity and accuracy, which can be scaled out to broader point-of-care applications.

Korea’s state-run Institute for Basic Science (IBS) revealed Wednesday its research team led by Cho Yoon-kyoung, Ph.D., a group leader in the Center for Soft and Living Matter, has developed a new biosensor based on a nanoporous gold electrode and successfully demonstrated its potential in the detection of prostate cancer.

The team’s research finding was published in the online edition of Advanced Materials on Tuesday and was selected as the cover paper.

Point-of-care diagnosis is a fast and cost-effective method for disease detection, but it requires extremely sensitive techniques because biomarkers related to cancer or infectious diseases are only in very small amounts in blood. The sensor electrode’s surface area can be enlarged for better sensitivity, but the risk of contamination increases together, hurting accuracy.

The research team developed a nanoporous gold electrode to tackle both problems at once, they claimed. The new biosensor allows physicians to diagnose prostate cancer at point-of-care without going through the complicated steps of isolating and purifying biomarkers at a lab.

This will pave the way for future technology development in point-of-care medicine, Cho said. The team aims to expand research to develop a diagnostic chip that analyzes blood and saliva samples.

By Jung Hee-young and Minu Kim

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