As member of the EU project consortium CATCH-U-DNA (https://catch-u-dna.com), JOBST TECHNOLOGIES developed advanced microfluidics cells in combination with micropumps for quartz crystal microbalance applications.

The aim of the EU project is to catch and detect free cancer DNA in the bloodstream of patients (circulating-tumor DNA). For early diagnosis and treatment, a quantitative detection is important for the patients. The available techniques to detect such DNA in human samples are still expensive and involve laborious multi-step methods. Therefore, the project consortium developed a new detection approach based on an acoustic technique employing a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM-D) device. In this innovative method, we monitor changes in the acoustic energy and correlate them to the presence of “soft” nanoparticles. The developed acoustic biochip array, incorporating 24 QCM-sensors, is combined with highly specific amplification of the target DNA.

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