The BDI’s scientific challenge lies primarily in creating miniaturised systems in which the presence of low concentrations of target biomarkers can be reliably detected in small volumes of biological samples. The integration of a range of scientific and engineering disciplines required for the development of these diagnostic devices, combined with the integration of clinical, industrial and academic expertise, is a key and unique feature of the BDI.

Having established key underpinning platform technologies and competencies with the first round of funding, BDI will now utilize these capabilities to focus on new research areas. These research programmes have been developed using inputs from all Academic, Industrial and Clinical partners and focus on two research areas:

1. CLINICAL PROJECTS
These projects address immediate and unmet needs for advanced clinical diagnostics in oncology, cardiovascular and infectious disease. Typically, each involves the capture, detection and analysis of cells or biomolecules and insights will be leveraged across the programme.

2. PLATFORM PROJECTS (INTEGRATED MICROFLUIDIC PLATFORMS)
In collaboration with our industrial partners, we have identified two projects of a general platform nature which can be addressed by our expertise in optical signal amplification, microfluidics, and surface sciences. These Platform Projects serve to increase our capabilities and help evolve our expertise in key diagnostic areas such as sample preparation and optical signal transduction.

The selection of these topic areas is informed by partner expertise, industrial impact as well as scientific challenge. The overall programme is designed to achieve significant social and economic impact and is aligned with global trends in in vitro diagnostics.