Damion Corrigan

University of Strathclyde · Department of Pure and Applied Chemistry

Currently 2.29% of deaths worldwide are caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR), compared to 1.16% from malaria, and 1.55% from human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDs). Furthermore, deaths resulting from AMR are projected to increase to more than 10 million per annum by 2050. Biofilms are common in hospital s...

Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), bilirubin, gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and albumin are well-established liver biomarkers with significant physiological functions. Alterations in these liver function tests can be indicative of the presence and progression of acute and chronic liver...

Currently 2.29% of deaths worldwide are caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR), compared to 1.16% from malaria, and 1.55% from human immunodeficiency virus and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDs). Furthermore, deaths resulting from AMR are projected to increase to more than 10 million per annum by 2050. Biofilms are common in hospital s...

Electrochemical detection methods hold many advantages over their optical counterparts, such as operation in complex sample matrices, low-cost and high volume manufacture and possible equipment miniaturisation. Despite these advantages, the...

Earlier access to patients’ biomarker status could transform disease management. However, gold-standard techniques such as enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) are typically not deployed at the point-of-care due to their cumbersome instrumentation and complexity. Electrochemical immunosensors can be disruptive in this sector with their small...

In this report, ion current rectification, an electrochemical phenomenon observed in asymmetric nanopipettes, is used for the label-free detection of SARS-CoV-2 viral fragments in nasopharyngeal samples. Quartz nanopipettes are functionalized with aptamers targeting the spike protein S1 domain, wherein changes to the surface charge magnitude, distr...

A major societal challenge is the development of the necessary tools for early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer and sepsis. Consequently, there is a concerted push to develop low-cost and non-invasive methods of analysis with high sensitivity and selectivity. A notable trend is the development of highly sensitive methods that are not only amena...

Tetracycline antibiotics are used extensively in veterinary medicine, but the majority of the administrated dose is eliminated unmodified from the animal through various excretion routes including urine, faeces and milk. In dairy animals, limits on residues secreted in milk are strictly controlled by legislation. Tetracyclines (TCs) have metal chel...

Electrochemical DNA (e-DNA) biosensors are feasible tools for disease monitoring, with their ability to translate hybridization events between a desired nucleic acid target and a functionalized transducer, into recordable electrical signals. Such an approach provides a powerful method of sample analysis, with a strong potential to generate a rapid...

One quarter of the global population is thought to be latently infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) with it estimated that 1 in 10 of those people will go on to develop active disease. Due to the fact that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) is a disease most often associated with low and middle income countries it is critical that low cost and...

The sustained misuse and overuse of antibacterial agents is accelerating the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is becoming one of the major threats to public health. Abuse of antibiotics drives spontaneous evolution, bacterial mutation, and exchange of resistant genes through lateral gene transfer. Mitigating the worldwide impact o...

In this study, an implantable stereo-electroencephalography (sEEG) depth electrode was functionalised with an enzyme coating for enzyme-based biosensing of glucose and L-glutamate. This was done because personalised medicine could benefit from active real-time neurochemical monitoring on small spatial and temporal scales to further understand and t...

3D-printing has become a fundamental part of research in many areas of investigation since it provides rapid and personalized production of parts that meet very specific user needs. Biosensing is not an exception, and production of electrochemical sensors that can detect a variety of redox mediators and biologically relevant molecules has been wide...

The presence and fate of antimicrobial residues in the environment is a subject of growing concern. Previous researchers have demonstrated the persistence of residues in soil and water. Additionally, antimicrobial resistance is a growing concern, particularly to public health, animal health and economic development. In this study, a low cost, comme...

Despite bacterial biofilms representing a common form of infection, notably on medical devices post implantation, their detection and characterisation with existing methods is not sufficient to inform clinicians about biofilm presence or treatment response in affected patients. This study reports the development and use of a combined hyperspectral...

With the emergence of drug resistant infections it is becoming increasingly important to develop technologies which accelerate and enhance prescription of antibiotics. For routine hospital testing in advanced economies, gold standard analysis techniques usually identify the correct antibiotic for treatment of an infection in 12-72 hours. Current te...

3D-printing has become a fundamental part of research in many areas of investigation since it provides rapid and personalized production of parts that meet very specific user needs. Biosensing is not an exception, and production of electrochemical sensors that can detect a variety of redox mediators and biologically relevant molecules has been wide...

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is often used for biomolecular detection based on the interaction of a molecule with a receptor functionalised electrode surface and consequent impedance change. Though its performance is well established, there is still a need for improved sensitivity and specificity, especially when attempting to detec...

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most pressing scientific and societal issues of our age. There is an urgent need to develop new diagnostic technologies which can quickly determine whether an infection is susceptible or resistant to different treatments so that rational antibiotic prescribing can take place. The main objective of the study was t...

Microfluidic chip systems have been an area of interest for lab-on-a-chip and organ-on-a-chip studies in recent years. These chips have many advantages such as high efficiency, low sample consumption, fast analysis, durability and low cost. Today, electrochemical sensors are frequently applied in microfluidic chips because of their potential for la...

SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic practices broadly involve either quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)-based nucleic amplification of viral sequences or antigen-based tests such as lateral flow assays (LFAs). Reverse transcriptase-qPCR can detect viral RNA and is the gold standard for sensitivity. However, the technique is time-consuming and requires...

Heat shock proteins (HSPs) are produced when organisms are exposed to various environmental stress conditions such as extreme temperatures, light, and toxins. It is a known fact that in bacteria which have the HSP gene (hsp), antibiotics can trigger the expression of these proteins. However, the response of HSP genes to antibiotics has not been ful...

Thiolated self‐assembled monolayers (SAMs) formed on metal electrodes have been a topic of interest for many decades. One of the most common applications is in the field of biosensors, where this is a growing need for functionalizing nanoelectrodes to realize more sensitive and implantable sensors. For all these applications, the SAM‐functionalized...

SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic practices broadly involve either qPCR based nucleic amplification or lateral flow assays (LFAs). qPCR based techniques suffer from the disadvantage of requiring thermal cycling (difficult to implement for low-cost field use) leading to limitation on sample to answer time, the potential to amplify viral RNA sequences after a pe...

SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic practices broadly involve either qPCR based nucleic amplification or lateral flow assays (LFAs). qPCR based techniques suffer from the disadvantage of requiring thermal cycling (difficult to implement for low-cost field use) leading to limitation on sample to answer time, the potential to amplify viral RNA sequences after a pe...

Isothermal amplification reactions represent an important and exciting approach to achieving widespread, low cost and easily implemented molecular diagnostics. This work presents a modified recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) reaction which can be directly coupled to a simple electrochemical measurement to ultimately allow development of a n...

A point-of-care blood test for the detection of an emerging biomarker, CCL17/TARC, could prove transformative for the clinical management of classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL). Primary care diagnosis is challenging due to nonspecific clinical presentation and lack of a diagnostic test, leading to significant diagnostic delays. Treatment monitoring enco...

Antimicrobial drug residues in food are strictly controlled and monitored by national laws in most territories. Tetracyclines are a major broad-spectrum antibiotic class, active against a wide range of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and they are the leading choice for the treatment of many conditions in veterinary medicine in recent year...

p>Development of an electrochemical diagnostic test would provide quantitative detection of biomarkers characteristic of clinical serum samples that may facilitate early detection and triage of glioma patients in the clinical setting. Today, 32 individuals will receive a confirmatory diagnosis of a brain tumor in the UK, equivalent to 3% of all pat...

The goal of achieving enhanced diagnosis and continuous monitoring of human health has led to a vibrant, dynamic and well-funded field of research in medical sensing and biosensor technologies. The field has many sub-disciplines which focus on different aspects of sensor science; engaging engineers, chemists, biochemists and clinicians, often in in...

DNA origami structures represent an exciting class of materials for use in a wide range of biotechnological applications. This study reports the design, production, and characterization of a DNA origami “zipper” structure, which contains nine pH-responsive DNA locks. Each lock consists of two parts that are attached to the zipper’s opposite arms: a...

We present a low-cost electrochemical DNA biosensor based on printed circuit board (PCB) electrodes for wastewater monitoring using portable PCR instruments, such as miniPCR®, without the requirement for qPCR reagents. PCB electrodes are attractive candidates for low-cost and sensitive DNA biosensors of relevance in a pandemic such as COVID-19, and...

Vincent J Vezzaa, Adrian Butterwortha, Perrine Lasserrea, Ewen O Blaira, Alexander MacDonalda, Stuart Hannaha, Christopher Rinaldib, Paul A Hoskissonc, Andrew C Wardd, Alistair Longmuire, Steven Setforde, Eoghan CW Farmerf, Michael...

Circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) is widely used in liquid biopsies due to having a presence in the blood that is typically in proportion to the stage of the cancer and because it may present a quick and practical method of capturing tumour heterogeneity. This paper outlines a simple electrochemical technique adapted towards point-of-care cancer detec...

Emerging in late 2019, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has had devastating health and economic effects around the world forcing governments to enact restrictions on day to day life, resulting in severe economic and social disruption. The virus has stimulated new research in the fields of drug development, vaccinology and diagnostic testing. Here, we present t...

Liquid biopsies are becoming increasingly important as a potential replacement for existing biopsy procedures which can be invasive, painful and compromised by tumour heterogeneity. This paper reports a simple electrochemical approach tailored towards point-of-care cancer detection and treatment monitoring from biofluids using a label-free detectio...

It is well-known that two major issues, preventing improved outcomes from cancer are late diagnosis and the evolution of drug resistance during chemotherapy, therefore technologies that address these issues can have a transformative effect on healthcare workflows. In this work we present a simple, low-cost DNA biosensor that was developed specifica...

Antibiotic resistance has been cited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of the greatest threats to public health. Mitigating the spread of antibiotic resistance requires a multipronged approach with possible interventions including faster diagnostic testing and enhanced antibiotic stewardship. This study employs a low-cost diagnostic sen...

Successful lysis of cells/microorganisms is a key step in the sample preparation in fields like molecular biology, bioengineering, and biomedical engineering. This study therefore aims to investigate the lysis of bacteria on-chip and its dependence on both microfluidic channel structure and flow rate. Effects of temperature on lysis on-chip were al...

Antimicrobial resistance is the greatest threat to public health, and has been forecast to kill more than 10 million people each year by 2050. Current antimicrobial susceptibility testing takes at least 1-2 days, which can drive resistance and have a severe impact on patient health (e.g. sepsis). This article describes screen-printed electrodes whi...

Today, the emergence of antibiotic-resistance in pathogenic bacteria is considered an important problem for society. Excessive consumption of antibiotics, long-term treatments, and inappropriate prescriptions continually increase the severity of the problem. Improving antibiotic stewardship requires improved diagnostic testing and therefore, in vit...

Chronic wound infections represent a significant burden to healthcare providers globally. Often, chronic wound healing is impeded by the presence of infection within the wound or wound bed. This can result in an increased healing time, healthcare cost and poor patient outcomes. Thus, there is a need for dressings that help the wound heal, in combin...

The opportunistic pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa , is infamous for its ability to rapidly form biofilms (<24 h) in inhospitable environments and the development of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It has been seen to have resistance to nearly all known antibiotics, including last-line antibiotics colistin and carbapenems. AMR is currently consider...

Si3N4 ceramics show excellent characteristics of mechanical and chemical resistance in combination with good biocompatibility, antibacterial property and radiolucency. Therefore, they are intensively studied as structural materials in skeletal implant applications. Despite their attractive properties, there are limited data in the field about in vi...

This paper describes improved sensitivity when using biosensors based on microfabricated microelectrodes to detect DNA, with the goal of progressing towards a low cost and mass manufacturable assay for antibiotic resistance in tuberculosis (TB). The microelectrodes gave an improvement in sensitivity compared to polycrystalline macroelectrodes. In a...

A flexible, thin-film carbon electrode is reported for detection of the key neurotransmitter dopamine using standard electroanalytical techniques of cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and square wave voltammetry. The thin-film electrode has been explored as a possible low-cost solution to detect low concentrations of dopamine and it...

The widespread use of point of care testing in biomedical and clinical applications is a major aim of the electrochemical field. A large number of groups are working on lab-on-a-chip systems or sensor arrays which are underpinned by electrochemical detection methodologies. Miniaturised transducers have the potential to be adopted in such systems fo...

We present a low-cost, sensitive and specific DNA field-effect transistor sensor for the rapid detection of a common mutation to the tumour protein 53 gene (TP53). The sensor consists of a commercially available, low-cost, field-effect transistor attached in series to a gold electrode sensing pad for DNA hybridisation. The sensor has been predomina...

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an issue of upmost global importance, with an annually increasing mortality rate and growing economic burden. Poor antimicrobial stewardship has resulted in an abundance and diverse range of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms. To tackle AMR effectively, better diagnostic tests must be developed in order to improve...

The desing of a microheater to improve sensiticity of electrochemical impedance.

This review article presents an overview of recent work on electrochemical biosensors developed using microfabrication processes, particularly sensors used to achieve sensitive and specific detection of DNA sequences. Such devices are important as they lend themselves to miniaturisation, reproducible mass-manufacture, and integration with other pre...

Testing outside the laboratoty environment, such as point of care testing, is a rapidly evolving area with advances in the integration of sample handling, measurement and sensing elements widely reported. Low cost, simple to use systems are important in this context because they provide a route to devices that can be used outside the laboratory and...

Antibiotic resistance is a growing concern in the treatment of infectious disease worldwide. Point-of-care (PoC) assays which rapidly identify antibiotic resistance in a sample will allow for immediate targeted therapy which improves patient outcomes and helps maintain the effectiveness of current antibiotic stockpiles. Electrochemical assays offer...

This paper outlines a simple label-free sensor system for the sensitive, real time measurement of an important protein biomarker of sepsis, using a novel microelectrode integrated onto a needle shaped substrate. Sepsis is a life threatening condition with a high mortality rate, which is characterised by dysregulation of the immune response followin...

Nowadays, increase in number of orthopedic surgery accelerates global interest in the world orthopedic industry. Apart from the increased number of the surgery, the rapid recovery becomes very important following the initial operations. One of the common problem for the patients is the biocompatibility between the implant and tissue [1-3]. In this...

For analytical applications involving label-free biosensors and multiple measurements, i.e., across an electrode array, it is essential to develop complete sensor systems capable of functionalization and of producing highly consistent responses. To achieve this, a multi-microelectrode device bearing twenty-four equivalent 50 µm diameter Pt disc mic...

Sepsis is characterised by a dysregulated immune response following infection with a mi-cro-organism. Treating and managing sepsis relies on fast and accurate diagnosis followed by introduction of the correct medications and supportive measures. Biosensor measurements for sepsis typically take the route of identification of the infectious agent and...

This paper details improvements in the design and fabrication of electrodes intended to function in the high temperature, corrosive environment of a molten salt. Previously reported devices have displayed low yield and lifetimes and this paper presents two strategies to improve these aspects of their performance. The first one involves reducing the...

Detection of specific genetic sequences enables rapid profiling of clinical samples for evidence of disease, e.g. antibody/antigenic biomarkers or presence of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a powerful measurement technique which provides information on a number of physical processes taking place at an...

Current approaches to molecular diagnostics rely heavily on PCR amplification and optical detection methods which have restrictions when applied to point of care (POC) applications. Herein we describe the development of a label-free and amplification-free method of pathogen detection applied to Escherichia coli which overcomes the bottleneck of com...

Microelectrodes have a number of advantages over macroelectrodes for quantitative electroanalysis and monitoring, including reduced iR drop, high signal to noise and reduced sensitivity to convection. Their use in molten salts has been generally precluded by the combined materials challenges of stresses associated with thermal cycling and physical...