• Kopola, Harri
• Huttunen, Olli-Heikki
• Känsäkoski, Markku
• Kivimäki, Liisa
• Kurkinen, Marika
• Ollitervo, Sanna
• Takkinen, Kristiina
• Lippo, Sari
• Maaninen, Arto
• Pulli, Timo

Abstract

As the population in Europe and many other industrialcountries ages, applications of biosensors inhealth care close to the patient, i.e. at thepoint-of-care, and especially biomolecular diagnostics,become increasingly attractive to improve the quality oflife of the patients and reduce the financial loadon health care systems. The need to develop rapid andreliable diagnostic sensors for healthcareapplications is therefore apparent. To meet these newcriteria, new volume-scale capable manufacturingtechniques are required for production of sensitive andreliable biosensors. The research efforts toachieve wide employment of biosensors are mainly gearedtoward biochips relying on conventionaldetection techniques, such as electrochemical andfluorescence detection. The integration ofbiomolecular components, nanotechnology-based transducersystems and low-cost mass-manufacturedpolymer fluidic and optical microsystems is one of thekey issues to reduce unit costs sufficiently forwidespread and ubiquitous employment of biosensors. Theoverall market for biochips in medicaldiagnostics constitutes one of the fastest emergingtechnology markets in the health care sector, withannual growth rates predicted to be above 25%. Thisgrowth scenario, however, requires the availabilityof fast, cost effective, yet sensitive and label-free,diagnostic platforms and biomolecular multiparametertests, which can be applied for diagnosis close to thepatient. Recent developments of hot embossedmicrofluidics, has made it possible to fabricatefunctional components by roll-to-roll techniques. In thispresentation, we show our current achievements formanufacturing low cost immunosensors for pointof-care and home care applications.

Topics

• impedance spectroscopy