Insights

Abstract: In diagnostic tools, rapid in vitro tests such as COVID-19 antigen or pregnancy tests are gaining significance for identifying various pathologies or health conditions. This shift contributes to a change in the way diagnostic efforts are carried out, emphasizing decentralized approaches that offer valuable services within communities, yielding long-term advantages for the healthcare system. Considering the substantial quantity of these tests manufactured and used annually, a straightforward manufacturing process is proposed for highly sensitive carbon electrodes designed for antibody-type biomarker sensors. This process, utilizing pad printing – an additive, low-temperature, and cost-effective method, coupled with plasma activation – has proven the electrodes capability to measure interferon gamma protein, a tuberculosis biomarker. Using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, the electrodes display high sensitivity and are capable of measuring concentrations from 10 to 1000 pg mL−1 in undiluted serum within an hour. The sensor, utilizing solely a monolayer of antibodies, achieves a performance equivalent to that of a commercial standard sandwich ELISA tested in this study.

Today finishes our hands-on workshop in ambient ionization mass spectrometry. M.Sc. Ralf Dumler and Dr. Silvio Kühn (NovionX GmbH, Germany) visited us for ten days in the LabABI Cinvestav UGA-Langebio to evaluate their prototypes: A microwave generator, a plasma jet, a PZT ceramic (a tiny ceramic plasma generator), a nebulizer, the "T-ramper", plasma characterization instruments, and AP photoionization. We tested various configurations with our miniature mass spectrometers (MiD and MoBiMS) and our imaging system (Open LabBot with Thermo LTQ) and tested their suitability for natural product analysis.

High-throughput analysis of essential oils with a PlasmaChip.

Solid-State RF-Energy Powered Atmospheric Pressure Ion Sources for Mass Spectrometry

PhD Thesis, Martin Andreas Christian Härtel aus Rosenheim, Deutschland

The ultimate challenge of NovionX GmbH is the development of cold plasma based mass spectrometry methods without sample preparation of e.g. contaminated raw material. Analysis of plant material and terpene screening & profiling is just one part of the wide spectrum of the NovionX R&D program.