BIOMIMIC

Biomimetic sensors as new generation of biotechnological devices for food safety and quality monitoring

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'In the past decade, development of biomimetic ligands have enabled rapid advances as alternative candidates to antibodies in many biotechnology fields. The Research will focus on the development of a new generation of biomimetic sensors for food safety and quality monitoring. The approach of the project will be oriented to test the performances of enzymes or antibodies versus new computationally-designed biomimetic ligands which work by mimicking the biological binding site. In particular it will be tested the performances of new computationally-designed biomimetic ligands which work as mimicking the biological binding site, overcoming the disadvantages of biological materials (unstable, expensive to produce) and matching the continuous trend to reduce the use of animals for the production of biological reagents. Choosing a ligand to achieve some desired structure is still largely a subject of trial and error. The key point of this research will be taking advantage of molecular modelling to obtain candidates with the aim of reducing to orders of magnitude the efforts to obtain specific receptors. These new ligands will be coupled with different transducers used in sensors technology known to give fast, reproducible and sensible analytical responses often in real time. This approach is promising to produce inexpensive biotechnological devices to be used in food safety and quality monitoring by combining the selectivity of biomimetic ligands with abiotic properties such as greater stability in harsh environments, with the powerful properties of biosensing techniques. All important analytical parameters i.e. reproducibility, sensitivity, selectivity, stability, etc, will be studied. first using standards and, after optimization of the protocol, on real samples. As model, typical food target will be used such as xenobiotics.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

A team of scientists is advancing studies in the use of biomimetic materials for application in devices tailored for ensuring and monitoring food safety. Inspired by nature, project efforts promise to offer widespread benefits for humans.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Biomimetic materials, developed using biological systems as models, afford a wide variety of uses and benefits, and continue to drive innovation by bringing together diverse research fields. Recent advances in the development of biomimetic ligands, which work by mimicking the biological binding site, have resulted in their being favoured over antibodies in many areas of biotechnology. However, the right choice of ligand for an intended structure or material composition is still subject to hits and misses.

The 'Biomimetic sensors as new generation of biotechnological devices for food safety and quality monitoring' (Biomimic) project is working towards the development of a new generation of biomimetic sensors applicable to safety and quality monitoring of food.

The EU-funded project is focused on validating the enhanced performance possibilities of computationally designed biomimetic ligands compared to enzymes or antibodies. This new direction offers a solution to the disadvantages of using biological materials and is in line with efforts to reduce the use of animals for production of biological reagents.

Biomimic researchers are taking a molecular modelling approach to obtain candidates that will greatly reduce the efforts needed to obtain specific receptors. Much work has already been realised in this direction, with targets having been validated, selected and their interactions with receptors studied. Other work has centred on evaluating transduction technologies and approaches for biomimetic devices, evaluating affinity binding of biomimetic receptor-modified sensing channels on gold-based screen-printed electrodes, and arranging and testing tools needed for experiments.

The project's approach has the potential to provide the means of producing cost-effective biotechnological devices for use in food safety and quality monitoring. Going forward, team members aim to realise an optimised protocol that will enable testing of all prior work on a real and typical food target.