MSc in Biochemistry
Dissertation Project – 2nd Cycle
Student´s Name:
Student email address:
No.
Supervisor(s): Arménio J.M. Barbosa. Co- Supervisor: Manuel N. Melo
Supervisor(s) email address: [email protected]
Lab/Institution: Biomolecular engineering Lab – FCT UNL / Multiscale Modeling Lab – ITQB UNL
TITLE: Insights of Biosensors for e-nose cancer detection
BACKGROUND
Tumor metabolism and growth are complemented by the release or consumption of volatile organic
compounds (VOCs) producing unique volatile fingerprints. Exploitation of this unique VOCs signature
provides tools for the development of non-invasive methods for diagnosis and screening of
cancer.Artificial nose sensors can contribute to tackle this challenge, by detecting cancer volatile
biomarkers. The development of biosensing materials will lead to fast, accurate and cheap early
diagnostics. A main component of these biosensing materials are optical nanoprobes.
In this project the molecular arrangements and optical properties of the nanoprobes will be addressed
in the presence on cancer VOCs biomarkers. Consequently, the results will unveil the correlations of
volatile diagnostic probes in the behavior of biosensors.
OBJECTIVES
Understand the behavior of optical nanoprobes in the presence of volatile organic compounds with
computational coarse grained simulations.
Experimental validation and correlation of simulations with electronic nose biosensors performance.
Application of the obtained results in the in-house e-nose prototype.
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MSc in Biochemistry
Dissertation Project – 2nd Cycle
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
To understand the behavior of optical nanoprobes in the presence of volatile organic compounds,
different methodologies have to be implemented. Computational coarse-grained simulations will be
employed to elucidate the variations on the molecular order of optical probes in the presence of
volatiles. On a first approach, simple molecules like ethanol and acetone with be implemented for
benchmarking the system.
VOCs like: caprolactam and propanoic acid, cyclohexanone, 1,3-dimethylbenzene, 1,2-pentadiene,
methylcyclohexane and 4-methyloctane were detected in higher quantities incancer patients than in
healthy controls. Some of these VOCs will therefore be the case studies of thisproject.
The followingproject outline will be implemented:
(i) Set upof coarse grained models for optical nanoprobes.
(ii) Coarse grained simulations of optical nanoprobesto extract critical information on structural and
optical properties.
(iii) Understand the interaction of cancer VOCs with optical nanoprobes.
(iv) Assemblage of biosensors and experimental validation of the system.
(Thesis) Report writing.
TIMELINE(use fill tool for the cells)
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3
Month 4
Month 5
Month 6
Month 7
Month 8
Month 9
Month 10
Task 1
Task 2
Task 3
Task 4
Thesis
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