EOS research project CHARMING

Technologies of 2D and 1D carbon nanomaterials, like graphene and single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), allow new developments in the field of detection of biological molecules and cells.
The overall objective of CHARMING project is to explore such unprecedented features and to develop a new technological platform that enables tailored systems for applications in the field of biomedical sensing and imaging. CHARMING will apply such unprecedented features to novel lab-on-fibre plasmonic biosensor devices, and to novel fibre-based second-harmonic generation microscopy probes.
The technology can be used for immunosensing in complex fluids such as serum and whole blood. DNA, proteins and cells will be targeted with such probes exhibiting a very high sensitivity and a limit of detection below 1 picomolar. The goal of CHARMING is also to enable selective detection in a complex medium of 10 cells as well as multiplexing 3 bio-detection regions in a single micro-structured optical fibre. CHARMING will thereby provide a tool to address the challenge of the detection of circulating tumor cells with unprecedented sensitivity.
The consortium involves researchers from the VUB (coordinator), Universiteit Antwerpen, Université de Mons, ULB (Erik Goormaghtigh - Structure and Function of Membrane Biology Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences) and the Instytut Technologii Materialów Elektronicznych.