Bernie Kraatz takes a chip from its protective case and balances the centimeter-square biosensor at the end of his index finger.
Chemistry Professor Bernie Kraatz, is director of the Nanofab Lab where he is developing chips that detect specific molecules such as those associated with disease or pollutants. Some applications may be worn on clothing with a readout, while others could plub into a computer.
This device, he notes, has 16 separate ports able to detect four different biologically active agents. The surfaces of these chips “can be prepared to detect a number of biological molecules related to disease, cancer and genetic defects.”
This work has earned Kraatz this year’s Florence Bucke prize. The prize, recognizing some of the best research in the Faculty of Science, is in memory of Florence Bucke (BA’26) who taught school in Fort Erie until 1971.
The idea for the device was developed while Kraaz was working in the Nanofabrication Facility in Salt Lake City. When he moved to Saskatoon, he refined the biosensors so that they could detect genetic mutations. His lab developed a working product now marketed by Adnavance Technologies Inc, a firm that describes itself as a developer of direct detection molecular diagnostic tests.
Now at Western, Kraatz is director of the Nanofab Lab and taking biosensors to the next level. He is modifying the chip to fit directly into a PCI slot of a computer.
“So now you don’t have to worry about engineering the interface, it is already done,” he says. His lab is also developing a reader interface which interprets signals from the sensor to visualize a simple yes/no answer. The number of samples that can be assessed on a chip is growing, too. Kraatz’s lab is developing chips containing an array of 96 probes.
While nanofabrication and microfabrication play key roles in developing these devices Kraatz also thinks of the big picture applications for this technology. In one scenario shipping perishable goods across international borders could take less time if the authorities had these devices on hand.
“Canadian industry is losing billions of dollars every year when they ship things down to the USA,” he says. If organisms such as flies stow away on a truck, “border guards have the authority to stop the truck at the border and if there is something on there that can be spoiled easily – meat, flowers, any kind of fresh produce- that is lost.”
It would be possible to take a DNA sample from the organism and run it through an array on a chip to determine if that fly is a potential threat as a pest. “The idea here is that we are able to detect genetic information that is species specific.”
Kraatz is also working on biochemical tools for screening how new drug molecules interact within disease processes such as cancer or AIDS.
In the case of HIV, “we’ve developed a detection device that allows us to monitor various HIV proteins that are involved in different stages of the virus….The way this works is that you essentially have something sticking to a [biosensor] surface and the protein docks on. It’s a simple handshake or recognition event that allows us to monitor that electrochemically. We can quantify the binding, we can monitor the drug molecules that interfere with this binding. It’s like a biochemistry lab on a chip.”
Currently, Kraatz is creating a toolset that recognizes biological or chemical warfare agents. His lab is developing this technology along with the Department of National Defense. He sees the final product as a little wearable plaque that displays a simple readout indicating whether the air is good or bad.