The NOVA FCT's MakeSensing Team won the first prize of the "Analytical Performance" category during the SensUs 2023 international competition, a yearly international Student Competition on sensors for health. The competition took place on the 31st of August 2023, in the Auditorium of the Eindhoven University of Technology, in the Netherlands.
The student team from NOVA FCT, which faced 14 opponents from various countries (Germany, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, USA, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Turkey), won the competition with a proposal of a biosensor to quickly detect the severity of traumatic brain injury (TBI).
TBI affects approximately 1.5 million people every year in Europe and can be severe, moderate, or mild. Of all the cases admitted to the emergency rooms, 90% are of the mild type. However, all patients undergo a CT scans, a very expensive procedure (around €2000 each).
The proposed biosensor aims to determine the severity of TBI using a drop of the patient's blood, avoiding costly medical procedures in patients with mild TBI. This rapid biosensor will help to reduce costs, minimize medical personnel intervention, and provide more comfort to the vast majority of TBI patients.
NOVA FCT professors, Ricardo Franco, leader of the BioNanoSensors research lab at UCIBIO-NOVA|i4HB, and Rui Igrejas (CENIMAT|i3N), were the mentors of the MakeSensing team, which developed the prototype of this biosensor in their laboratories, with the support of Tomás Pinheiro, PhD student at CENIMAT|i3N. Ricardo Franco adds “My role as a mentor was to enable the ideas that the students presented. The experience was extremely rewarding and I'm very proud to have been the mentor of the only Portuguese team taking part.
The winning MakeSensing team is led by Ricardo Mafra and Diogo Martins, both students from NOVA FCT's Master's in Micro and Nanotechnology Engineering. The 13-strong team also includes students from Biotechnology, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine and Biomedical Engineering master's degrees. The full list of winners: André Luís, Beatriz Nobre, Chiara La Guidara, Diogo Martins, David Alves, Lara Gonçalves, Matilde Abreu, Mariana Resende, Nuno Ferreira, Ricardo Mafra, Simão Caracho, Sofia Ribeiro and Tomás Mingates.
MakeSensing had the support of the UCIBIO|i4HB and CENIMAT|i3N research units, where the laboratory prototype was designed. The Chemistry Department and the Department of Materials Sciences at NOVA FCT funded the entry to the competition and the company LaborSpirit donated consumables and reagents essential for setting up the prototype.
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