Neurological disorders (NDs) account for a large and increasing health burden worldwide due to the global trending of aging society. The most common neurodegenerative disorders are Alzheimer disease (AD) and Parkinson disease (PD), which may be diagnosis by the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and molecular imaging of the brain. However, these methods are limited as tools for a small population screening. Amyloid beta (Aβ) and α-synuclein (α-Syn) shows the highly corelation to AD and PD, which are observed between different NDs. Therefore, there is a need for complementary to the imaging and analytical methods used in the diagnosis of NDs, that might be a potential candidate, the point-of-care test (POCT) for rapid screening tests. In this project, a screening platform for the determination of selected early, blood occurring biomarkers that differentiate AD and PD is proposed with a cooperation with the research team in Polish Academic of Science. An objective of this project is to elaborate a novel enhanced photoelectrochemical type biosensing platform to improve the affinity reaction for screening tests with simultaneous detection of two early and differentiating AD/PD biomarkers, Aβ(42) and α-Syn.

To reach the aim, three approaches will be applied: (1) application of a layer of Cu2O nanocrystals – a nanomaterial with very good photocatalytic properties, (2) using of an adequate sensor surface biofunctionalization method, and (3) antibodies and aptamers labelling with a photoelectrochemically active compounds. Modification based on self-assembled monolayer (SAM) formation, including biofunctionalization will be performed on electrodeposition Cu2O with a pn junction structure. In measurement protocol, two affinity interactions will take place: (A) between immobilized primary antibodies or aptamers and Aβ and αSyn, and then (B) again between Aβ and α-Syn and antibodies labelled with photo-electrochemically active compounds, which can be optically or electrochemically detected. Other relative project and topic can be arranged depends on applicants'specialties.