IBRI IN THE NEWS: IBRI Technologies Lead to Handheld Analyzing Device

July 30, 2020

Source: Inside INdiana Business

Indianapolis - The Indiana Biosciences Research Institute (IBRI) is marking a milestone: the team is licensing its first technology, and as a result, giving birth to a startup based in South Bend. IBRI visionaries believe the discoveries will, ultimately, create a handheld device that can detect biomolecules within a sample. Whether it be a patient's bedside, in a farm field or a location yet to be imagined, the device is expected to deliver answers faster than ever before.

The handheld device will combine two technologies: BioMEMs and SIERRA Reagent. The BioMEMs portion is an electronic chip that processes samples inside a small device.

"People often call it 'lab on a chip.' It's a technology that's been evolving for about 20 years. And, SIERRA is a nanoparticle chemistry that's used to detect biomolecules," says Dr. Michael Pugia, IBRI's Bioanalytical Technologies group investigator and director. "The core technology is about taking and removing very small numbers of biomolecules, or cells, from complex samples like blood. It's similar to removing a needle from a haystack. You isolate these molecules and [put them] into tiny, high-sensitivity detectors."

To read the full article, go to Inside INdiana Business.