Diagnostic technologies

What is more exciting than doing a pregnancy test and waiting for the two lines to appear? Soon it is possible to use similar tools every day, whether it is safe to dive into the lake, okay to eat the fish in the restaurant and continue enjoying your holiday without concern about food poisoning, or if you should choose running or stretching for your daily exercise. VTT helps to develop reliable, easy to use, affordable tools for these types of diagnostics applications.

VTT offers all the elements needed for developing affordable solutions for personalised diagnostics and monitoring. Our diagnostic technologies portfolio covers everything to develop tools and systems for disposable diagnostics.

The photonic, electrical or microfluidic functionalities of the integrated devices can comprise sampling, sample pre-treatment and actual sensing, to meet “just add sample” operation and therefore making the usage comfortable. We also have expertise in antibody discovery and production, assay platforms and detection device development.

The developed intelligent sensors can be linked to conformable plasters, which are attached directly on the skin instead of wearable devices. The sensors can monitor our pulse or activity and even reveal the composition of the sweat. These diagnostic devices can also communicate with the phone through their Bluetooth of NFC chips and the information can be shared with a doctor, personal trainer or family member.

The grand vision of personalised diagnostics relies on the assumption that integrated diagnostic systems can be produced at high volumes with low cost. This is relevant not only at the commercialisation phase but required already at piloting or proof-of-concept production.

VTT has developed technologies to produce affordable, everyday sensors and test strips using printing technologies. Instead of usual graphics we are printing chemically, biochemically and electrically functional inks to achieved tests and sensors.

To bin the devices in a green way, VTT is currently realising the diagnostic technologies and devices from sustainable materials.

• Wearable sensors detect what’s in your sweat
• Regional and correlative sweat analysis using high-throughput microfluidic sensing patches toward decoding sweat
• New affordable, credit-card-size rapid test to see if you’re fit to drive

Public references & videos:

• Roll-to-roll manufacturing of integrated immunodetection sensors
• Sweat analytics collaboration with UC Berkeley
• Roll-to-roll upscaling of lab-on-chip devices (Ultraplacad EU project): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLkYtVlPrV0 and www.ultraplacad.eu
• Immunocomplex antibody technology
• Roll-to-roll fabrication of integrated PDMS–paper microfluidic
• MedPhab Europe’s first Photonics Pilot Line on medical applications
• CADMIM collaboration

See our publications:

• New pressure sensing elements for FFR coronary catheter
• Integration of a capacitive pressure sensing system into the outer catheter wall for coronary artery FFR measurements
• New MEMS pressure sensor element and concept for coronary catheter
• Ultrathin MEMS pressure sensor and readout ASIC
• SAFTIR - a novel point-of-need diagnostic platform for animal health and food safety