Scientists from the Warsaw University of Technology and the Łukasiewicz Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics together with researchers from four universities in Belgium are working on a platform that will allow detecting cancer at a very early stage, using the unique properties of light and carbon nanomaterials.
In the project CHARMING, researchers decided to combine the unique properties of optical fibres and carbon nanomaterials. An international, interdisciplinary team is developing a platform with a new class of sensors and systems that can be applied to biomedical detection and imaging. It will apply in particular to the recognition of cancer cells with unprecedented sensitivity.
Optical fibres are primarily associated with applications in telecommunications, but in recent years they have also become more and more popular in life sciences. When properly configured, they are used as highly sensitive sensors for detecting even small amounts of biological cells or as flexible light sources that enable the examination of tissues. It enables the early diagnosis of diseases. Scientists discovered that graphene and carbon nanotubes interact with light in such an unusual way that they create even better sensors and light sources.
Graphene consists of a sheet-like single layer of carbon atoms, nanotubes are nanoscale hollow tubes, coiled from the same carbon sheet. Those unique materials can interact with light to amplify the electric field and absorb a small amount of incoming light creating more sensitive sensors.
Apart from Polish scientists, the project is realized by specialists from Belgian universities: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Universiteit Antwerpen, Université Libre de Bruxelles and Université de Mons. Scientists from the Faculty of Physics of the Warsaw University are responsible for the production and characterization of two-dimensional materials, in particular graphene and molybdenum sulphide on optical fibres and photonic chips. Researchers from the Warsaw University of Technology have been working with those materials for years.
Arkadiusz Słomczyński