Cloé Desmet

• PhD in Biochemistry
• Scientific Project Officer at European Commission

The present study describes the development, optimization and performance comparison of three ELISAs and one multiplex immunoassay in a microarray format. The developed systems were dedicated to the detection of three different classes of pollutants (pesticide, explosive and toxin) in water. The characteristics and performances of these two types o...

Paper-based analytical devices (PAD) emerge in the scientific community since 2007 as low-cost, wearable and disposable devices for point-of-care diagnostic due to the widespread availability, long-time knowledge and easy manufacturing of cellulose. Rapidly, electrodes were introduced in PAD for electrochemical measurements. Together with biologica...

The microarray technology has been a tremendous advance in molecular-based testing methods for biochemical and biomedical applications. As a result, the immobilization techniques and grafting chemistries of biochemical molecules have experienced great progress. The particularities of the grafting techniques adapted to the microarray development wil...

Characterisation of engineered nanomaterials (NMs) is of outmost importance for the assessment of the potential risks arising from their extensive use. NMs display indeed a large variety of physico-chemical properties that drastically affect their interaction with biological systems. Among them, hydrophobicity is an important property that is never...

The development of sensitive methods for in situ detection of biomarkers is a real challenge to bring medical diagnosis a step forward. The proof-of-concept of a remote multiplexed biomolecular interaction detection through a plasmonic optical fiber bundle is demonstrated here. The strategy relies on a fiber optic biosensor designed from a 300 µm d...

Overview of natural and engineered material-binding peptides and the molecular forces crucial for their (material-specific) binding to material surfaces.

African swine fever (ASF) is an acute, highly contagious and deadly infectious disease. It is a threat to animal health with major potential economic and societal impact. Despite decades of ASF vaccine research, still some gaps in knowledge are hindering the development of a functional vaccine. Worth mentioning are gaps in understanding the mechani...

Among the physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials, hydrophobicity is considered to play a key role in their impact on the environment. Changes in hydrophobicity resulting from abiotic and biotic processes can be used to predict the behaviours of nanoparticles (NPs) in the environment (e.g., aggregation, toxicity, and bioaccumulation). Hyd...

In this work, we introduce a polymer version of a previously developed silicon MEMS drop deposition tool for surface functionalization that consists of a microcantilever integrating an open fluidic channel and a reservoir. The device is fabricated by laser stereolithography, which offers the advantages of low-cost and fast prototyping. Additionally...

Introduction The role of the human immune system in pathologic responses to chemicals including nanomaterials was identified as a gap in current hazard assessments. However, the complexity of the human immune system as well as interspecies variations make the development of predictive toxicity tests challenging. In the present study, we have analys...

Sensitive high-throughput analytic methodologies are needed to quantify microplastic particles (MPs) and thereby enable routine monitoring of MPs to ultimately secure animal, human, and environmental health. Here we report a multiplexed analytical and flow cytometry-based high-throughput methodology to quantify MPs in aqueous suspensions. The devel...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a blood/bone marrow cancer, is a severe and often fatal malignancy. AML cells are capable of impairing the anti-cancer activities of cytotoxic lymphoid cells. This includes the inactivation of natural killer (NK) cells and killing of T lymphocytes. Here we report for the first time that V-domain Ig-containing suppresso...

Nanoplastics (NPTs) are defined as colloids that originated from the unintentional degradation of plastic debris. To understand the possible risks caused by NPTs, it is crucial to determine how they are transported and where they may finally accumulate. Unfortunately, although most sources of plastic are land-based, risk assessments concerning NPTs...

Development of sensitive methods for the determination of E. coli bacteria contamination in water distribution systems is of paramount importance to ensure the microbial safety of drinking water. This work presents a new sensing platform enabling the fast detection of bacteria in field samples by using specific antibodies as the biorecognition elem...

Hydrophobicity is an important parameter for the risk assessment of chemicals, but standardised quantitative methods for the determination of hydrophobicity cannot be applied to nanomaterials. Here we describe a method for the direct quantification of the surface energy and hydrophobicity of nanomaterials. The quantification is obtained by comparin...

Nanomechanical monitoring of known mechanisms of membrane poration mediated by host defense peptides is reported. Quartz Crystal Microbalance with Dissipation monitoring used to probe the process of antimicrobial poration in model phospholipid bilayers offers a straightforward method for mechanically differential kinetic measurements of membrane-me...

Although all countries are intensifying their efforts against terrorism and increasing their mutual cooperation, terrorist bombing is still one of the greatest threats to society. The discovery of hidden bomb factories is of primary importance in the prevention of terrorism activities. Criminals preparing improvised explosives (IE) use chemical sub...

The integration of gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) or nanostructures on solid surfaces for developing nanostructured biointerfaces has become a major research topic in the field of nanobiotechnology in particular for the development of a new generation of multifunctional bioanalytical platforms. This has led to considerable research efforts for develop...

In the context of the extensive use of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) in consumer products, industrial applications and nanomedicine, there is an important need of new methods for an exhaustive characterization of their physicochemical properties. Among them, surface hydrophobicity is considered as a key factor to be controlled, in particular for...

The work reported in this thesis focuses on the development of new multiplex analytical devices on biochip or electrode microarray format, dedicated to diagnosis and environmental monitoring. The objective of the first research axis is diagnosis, thanks to the detection in patients’ serum of a panel of antibodies, biomarkers of a pathological state...

The present study described the development and evaluation of a new fully automated multiplex competitive immunoassay enabling the simultaneous detection of five water pollutants (okadaic acid (OA), 2-chloro-4-ethylamino-6-isopropylamino-1,3,5-triazine (atrazine), 2.4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D), 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) and 1,3,5-trinitr...

TAAs (tumor-associated antigens) microarrays were designed to detect auto-antibodies directly in patient sera. Twelve different probes were chosen according to their described occurrence in cancer pathologies (Cyclin B1, Cyclin D1, Complement factor H, c-myc, IMP1, p53, p62, survivin, Her2/neu, Koc, NY-ESO-1 and PSA). Microarrays of these 12 protei...

We are reporting here a low cost colorimetric device for high-throughput multiplexed blood group genotyping and allergy diagnosis, displayed as an automated 96-well microtiter plate format. A porous polymeric membrane sealed at the bottom of each well accounts for the sensor support. For each sensing unit, a 6×6 matrix of specific probes is spotted...