Diagnosing the Future: Proteins, Biosensors and Fundamental Science with Prof. Eleonora Macchia

 

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Can a single drop of blood tell you whether you'll develop pancreatic cancer — before any symptoms appear? Prof. Eleonora Macchia is working to make that a reality. This week on SciLux, we dig into biosensors, the science of proteins, and the surprising path from organic transistors to clinical trials.

What you'll learn:

  • Why the proteome is medicine's great unknown

  • How current tests (ELISA, lateral flow) fail at ultra-low concentrations, and what SiMoT technology does differently

  • What it actually means to detect a single molecule in a patient's blood sample

  • Why AI in diagnostics is only as good as the physicist standing behind the data

  • How chemometrics – AI's "old-fashioned cousin" –  underpins the whole approach

Key Themes:

  • Frontier research and ERC funding advocacy

  • Single-molecule biosensing and the SiMoT technology

  • Preventive medicine vs. reactive diagnosis

  • AI, chemometrics, and data quality

  • Circular health and multidisciplinary science

  • Gender balance in research careers

Guest: Prof. Eleonora Macchia, University of Bari & Åbo Akademi University

USEFUL LINKS

More about Prof. Eleonora Macchia: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tj6pKhAAAAAJ&hl=en

ERC Ambassadors: https://erc.europa.eu/news-events/news/network-ambassadors-erc-expands

More about SiMoT: https://theanalyticalscientist.com/issues/2024/articles/apr/the-single-molecule-sensor

University of Bari: https://www.uniba.it/en

Åbo Akademi University: https://www.abo.fi/en/

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