Nanosensors for near patient and in vivo diagnostics and closed loop drug delivery

The trend towards primary care and disease management based consolidation of major healthcare companies is leading to closer market relationships between disease therapy (often a drug) and its diagnostics. This changing market environment enables integration of drug and diagnostic to be considered, particularly at the levels of drug usage and drug delivery. At the scientific level, the need for near patient and in vivo diagnostics is usually seen as the main driver for the development of reliable and biocompatible devices to report biochemical or biological parameters in blood and other body fluids. There are two main approaches to the development of small devices to operate in the body, which reflect the overall directions of microelectronics and particularly nanotechnology. In order to combine the benefits of biorecognition with biophysical detection methods, we have been developing sub-micron sized assemblies to sense and produce amplified signals that can be resolved by biophysical detection and imaging methods. We find liposomes a particularly successful vehicle for this approach