The core of the SenDISo program is the development of a new generation of detectors and chemical biosensor solutions. Interdisciplinary research will focus on the creation of technologies for environmental monitoring (portable VOC sensors for pollution monitoring), improved medical diagnostics (discovery and analysis of trace amounts of biomarkers to combat serious diseases) and radiotherapy and quality control in industry. The new tools will, among other things, enable sensitivity at the level of individual (bio)molecules, opening the door to discoveries in life sciences and early diagnosis of serious diseases such as cancer.
The research is divided into five interlinked research objectives that address the development of advanced plasma deposition methods for the preparation of semiconductor and metallic thin films and micro/nanostructures with tailored electronic and optical properties, the preparation of polymer architectures with controlled nanomechanical and physicochemical properties that enable the coupling of the technical devices studied here with biological systems and faithfully mimic the properties of biological environments. The results of these activities will be used for the subsequent development of a new class of detectors, chemosensors and biosensors.
"The support from the Johannes Amos Comenius Programme will allow us to closely connect the excellent scientific institutions included in the consortium and significantly develop their research potential," said Jakub Dostálek, SenDiSo project coordinator. In his new role, Dostálek will make active use of his experience and contacts gained at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and the Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna.
The FZU core expertise in chemosensors, optical materials and thin-film deposition techniques, advanced laser technologies and biosensors is complemented by partners involved in new areas in nanophotonics (Institute of Photonics and Electronics of the Czech Academy of Sciences), quantum optics and optical technologies (Palacký University in Olomouc), biochemistry and bioanalytical research (Masaryk University), gas sensors (University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague), (bio)materials research (University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Institute of Physics of Materials of the Czech Academy Sciences and Czech Technical University in Prague) and 2D materials for sensors and detectors (J. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences).