Aptamer-based biosensing platform for monitoring of nanoplastic and biotoxin co-exposure as human exposome surveillance platform

The quantifications of humans exposure to biotic and abiotic contaminants remains as one of the most significant technical gaps in human exposome studies. This project aims to resolve this technical challenge by developing a continuous biosensing platform capable of detecting and quantifying nanoplastics (NPs) and biotoxins directly interfaced with the human microenvironment. This biosensing is based on short, single-stranded oligonucleotide known as aptamer which can recognize the biotoxins and nanoplastics, then functionalised on gold nanoparticle lateral flow assay (LFA). SELEX will be conducted and validated for each target, the binding kinetics (KD) will be determined by binding assays. The apt-LFA strip architecture will be optimised for multiplex detection which enable multiple detection and readout of NPs and biotoxin targets from a single sample. The sensitivity of the apt-LFA will be benchmarked against LC-MS/MS and ICP-MS reference standards. Cross-reactivity of the system will also confirm the selectivity samples spiked with in biological matrices such as saliva and urine. This biosensing platform complement the research project 1, allowing real-world exposure inputs to be matched against laboratory-derived dose-response thresholds. The project will generate a human exposome surveillance system where the biosensing data informs the molecular toxicological model for science-to-policy translation.

Main Supervisor: Dr. Michelle Yap Khai Khun, Monash University

Associate Supervisors: Dr. Ong Huey Fang, Dr. Krystle Angelique Santiago, Dr. Faddrine Jang