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SUMMARY:Cafe Synthetique: Biosensors - from women's health to environmenta
 l surveillance  - James Che (SCICambridge)\, Tommaso Busolo (Device Materi
 als Group)\, Feng Geng (DAMTP)\, Boon Lim (DTC\, Oxford)\, Jack Chen (Engi
 neering\, Oxford)
DTSTART:20190121T180000Z
DTEND:20190121T200000Z
UID:TALK118150@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Alexandra Ting
DESCRIPTION:This month\, we'll be joined by two interdisciplinary teams th
 at have developed low-cost\, open-source biosensors as part of the Biomake
 r Challenge. Both teams have taken their projects beyond the four-month ch
 allenge- come check out their prototypes and learn more about how they wor
 k!\n\n"Alma - Wearable Biosensor for Monitoring Vaginal Discharge" by Jame
 s Che and Tommaso Busolo (University of Cambridge)\n\nGynaecological condi
 tions\, particularly infections such as Candidal vulvovaginitis (CVV) and 
 Bacterial Vaginosis (BV)\, are still a significant burden for many women\,
  particularly as these may be recurrent. Societal and cultural stigma and 
 often adoption of unconventional treatment pose a risk of harm to many. Th
 is project stems from the idea of developing an inconspicuous\, low-cost w
 earable biosensor aimed at monitoring physiological markers of infection\,
  such as lactate and pH\, in vaginal secretions. On one hand\, this will p
 rovide insight into what normal and abnormal physiology may be for individ
 ual women. On the other\, we hope this will provide new insight into the u
 nderlying biological processes for research purposes. We hope this will en
 able women to take up a more active role in their healthcare\, prompting t
 hem to seek medical advice as necessary and ultimately break some of the t
 aboos associated with urogynaecological health.\n\n"Palm sized spectrophot
 ometer for biosensors application in environment surveillance" by Feng Gen
 g (University of Cambridge)\, Boon Lim and Jack Chen (Oxford University)\n
 \nBiosensors detect and convert analytes into detectable signals via biolo
 gical systems. Using synthetic biology technologies\, bacteria can be engi
 neered into whole-cell biosensors (WCBs) to sense physical and biochemical
  signals in the environment. On top of their high sensitivity (single-mole
 cule level detection)\, rapid response\, portability\, low-cost and simple
 -usage\, one of the biggest advantages of WCBs is in-situ detection\, whic
 h makes WCBs ideal for real-time environmental and medical surveillance. T
 his project aims to develop a portable\, low-cost and miniaturised spectro
 photometer to realise the potential of WCBs for remote and on-site applica
 tion.\n\n---\n\nCafé Synthetique is the monthly meetup for the Cambridge 
 synthetic biology community with informal talks\, discussion and pub snack
 s. It is kindly sponsored by Cambridge Consultants.
LOCATION:Panton Arms 43 Panton Street CB2 1HL\, Cambridge
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