October 2, 2012 at 18:08Presentation of the SNEZHINSK team
The area of interest of the final team of the Selection SNU SNEZHINSK is the development of automatic electrochemical liquid analyzers.
The technology of electrochemical analysis of liquids allows to obtain a large amount of experimental information in one dimension at a very high sensitivity. In this case, the primary analytical signal does not require any mathematical processing, such as filtering, subtracting the background line, etc. The method is flexible, it allows optimizing the measurement to ensure high selectivity while maintaining sensitivity.
The team members believed that this technology would be in demand in electrochemical analysis, however, attempts to commercialize the technology in traditional areas were unsuccessful.
Analyzing the reasons why domestic chromatograph manufacturers showed no interest in the development, the developers came to the conclusion that high sensitivity and additional information due to the selective properties of the detector are not needed in routine analysis. Namely, the majority of buyers of chromatographic systems are oriented to routine analysis. In addition, serious costs are required for the development of analysis methods. Therefore, it was decided to proceed from the capabilities of the technology and look for new areas of its application.
Such an area has become molecular medical diagnostics, which has recently emerged from research laboratories in medical practice. The combination of molecular diagnostics and telemedicine methods opens up completely new market prospects. Of course, a mobile diagnostic device cannot replace the most sophisticated analytical equipment used in modern molecular diagnostics, but MDU is just a “fire detector”, which should tell the patient that he should see a doctor.
Status of work on the concept:
The technology of electrochemical analysis of liquids allows to obtain a large amount of experimental information in one dimension at a very high sensitivity. In this case, the primary analytical signal does not require any mathematical processing, such as filtering, subtracting the background line, etc. The method is flexible, it allows optimizing the measurement to ensure high selectivity while maintaining sensitivity.
The team members believed that this technology would be in demand in electrochemical analysis, however, attempts to commercialize the technology in traditional areas were unsuccessful.
Analyzing the reasons why domestic chromatograph manufacturers showed no interest in the development, the developers came to the conclusion that high sensitivity and additional information due to the selective properties of the detector are not needed in routine analysis. Namely, the majority of buyers of chromatographic systems are oriented to routine analysis. In addition, serious costs are required for the development of analysis methods. Therefore, it was decided to proceed from the capabilities of the technology and look for new areas of its application.
Such an area has become molecular medical diagnostics, which has recently emerged from research laboratories in medical practice. The combination of molecular diagnostics and telemedicine methods opens up completely new market prospects. Of course, a mobile diagnostic device cannot replace the most sophisticated analytical equipment used in modern molecular diagnostics, but MDU is just a “fire detector”, which should tell the patient that he should see a doctor.
Status of work on the concept:
- at the moment, the team has received two patents for a method for electrochemical analysis of liquids;
- created a universal hardware and software complex for testing various operating modes of the sensor;
- layout solutions for two sensor designs with various separation mechanisms have been worked out;
- Estimated calculations of the main parameters of the sensors are carried out. Manufactured parts for the layout of the sensor;
- prototyping of one of the variants of the electrokinetic separator was performed;
- patent search conducted.