Bio-assay Development and Implementation for Fungal Infection Detection

The study discussed here is part of a broader research project (IOF project) that is aimed at the development and implementation of a point-of-care devices, in which Fiber-Optic Surface Plasmon Resonance (FO-SPR) is used as a detection system. This project includes the development and implementation of the (FUNGDETECT) sensor for fast and accurate detection of fungal pathogens in human blood samples. In first instance, the sensor will be tested in buffer solutions spiked with a known amount of Candida albicans cells. Further validation of the prototype includes detection of these cells in human blood samples. In a first experiment, detection of yeast cells will be performed in blood samples from 5 healthy volunteers each spiked with yeast cells from different Candida spp.. A second experiment includes the detection in blood samples from 15 patients who suffer from a candidemia. The blood samples will be collected from patients of University Hospitals (UZ) Leuven.