Sepsis biosensor delivers diagnosis in under three minutes

Developed by scientists at Strathclyde University, the device uses a microelectrode to detect interleukin-6 (IL-6) in patients’ blood. IL-6 is a protein biomarker that can indicate the presence of sepsis, which occurs when chemicals released by the immune system cause inflammation throughout the body.

The device takes a pinprick of blood which is then put on the chip for the result to be read. Its needle shape means it can also be implanted and used on patients in intensive care for constant monitoring. While current testing for the disease can take up to 72 hours, the new device can deliver a bedside diagnosis in around two and a half minutes.

“The research shows that the tools we’ve developed could underpin a rapid test for sepsis,” said Dr Damion Corrigan, from Strathclyde’s department of Biomedical Engineering. “We’ve developed a needle shaped sensor with different electrodes and have shown we can detect one sepsis biomarker in almost real time, at the clinically relevant levels.