Sensors and biosensors for health and environmental monitoring

• Grant number: 24/16261-2
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Condensed Matter Physics
• Principal Investigator: Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior
• Grantee: Osvaldo Novais de Oliveira Junior
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to continue research on sensors and biosensors in the Bernhard Gross Polymer Group at the São Carlos Institute of Physics, with an emphasis on developing low-cost strategies and data analysis using machine learning. The sensors and biosensors will be built from nanostructured films, in some cases on flexible substrates. The detection techniques will primarily be electrochemical and impedance spectroscopy, in addition to image processing. The analytes to be investigated may be, among others, pesticides, relevant for both environmental monitoring and human health, and markers of different types of diseases. In the latter case, immunosensors or genosensors may be manufactured, depending on the type of analyte. Electronic tongues - non-specific sensor arrays - will be used, which also serve for monitoring through the recognition of electrical response patterns. This type of recognition is done with computational methods, mainly with machine learning algorithms. Different machine learning approaches will be used to process data from sensors and biosensors, including a combination with image processing in which diagnoses are made from micrographs (or photographs) of sensory units. These methodologies were part of a Thematic Project that is now coming to an end. In this Project, we hope to advance on some topics, as will be described in the course of the research plan. (AU)