Team:NTHU Formosa/Biomarker
Biomarker
Biomarkers are used in many scientific fields. They generally refer to measurable indicators of biological states and several diseased processes. They can be specific molecules, cells, genes, gene products, enzymes or hormones.
The content of the biomarkers in human body varies depending on different disease conditions and stages. Therefore, health condition is concerned when dramatic increase or decrease in the amount of specific biomarkers are detected in body.
About our project:
The nanobodies’ binding affinity for the antigen has high immunoassay sensitivity. Our team attempts to use nanobodies as diseases relating antigens detectors. As nanobodies bind to specific antigens followed by several steps of our sophisticated designed biology mechanism, bioluminescent will be triggered in cells containing designed genes, resulting in glowing cells. Tasks including detecting bioluminescent, calculating the bioluminescent-output, determining health condition and suggesting apt clinic or medical institution will be done by generally accessible and affordable watch device—Biowatcher. The application of this biotech is so huge that it can serve all known biomarkers with just a tiny variation in the whole system--switching nanobodies.
Potentiality/ Future work:
Although nanobodies, specifying certain biomarkers, identified are not as sufficient as expected so far, researches show that phage, yeast or E.coli can be useful antigen-specific nanobodies identification surfaces, which make construction of nanobodies libraries accessible, robust, and rapid. In conclusion, the system we designed will have a big leap soon with the expansion of the nanobody libraries. The feasibility and application of our project will be greatly comprehensive.