Generic Platform for the detection of Osteoporosis

The overall aim of this research to to create a generic electrochemical platform for the multiplexed detection of diverse biomarkers, including genes, miRNA, RNA, proteins, virulence markers and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). The platform can be used to detect multiple biomarkers of the same type or a combination of diverse markers, from one single sample. In this part of the work, a platform for the multiplexed detection of SNPs associated with a predisposition to osteoporosis was developed. The platform simply requires a fingerprick blood sample, has a cost of 0,6€ per SNP, determines the zygosity nature and the assay is complete in 15 minutes. The performance was validated with real samples and laboratory based genotyping, which are far more expensive and time consuming, and an excellent correlation was obtained. Simpler version of this platform were previously developed for the detection of a SNP associated with rifampicin resistance (an antibiotic used against tuberculosis) as well as a SNP associated with cardiomyopathy (sudden adult death syndrome). The work is part of ongoing projects to achieve the overall aim.