Publications by authors named "Alfonso Medina-Escuela"
Dust deposition, river runoff and glacial melt are the main sources of trace metals to the surface ocean. In the Canary Islands, deposition is dominated by dry dust deposition from the Saharan desert. However, during 85 days, from 19 September to 13 December 2021, the main source of trace metals on the island of La Palma changed drastically.
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- Pneumocystis pneumonia is a serious fungal infection that affects people with weakened immune systems, and diagnosing it is complicated because patients often lack specific symptoms.
- Current diagnostic methods mainly rely on PCR techniques that are effective but require specialized expertise, equipment, and can be time-consuming.
- The study presents a new optical biosensor that uses surface plasmon resonance to quickly and accurately detect the mitochondrial ribosomal RNA gene associated with Pneumocystis pneumonia, offering a potential for faster and more accessible diagnostics in clinical settings.
Article Synopsis
- Nanoplasmonic biosensors typically require complex and costly fabrication methods for effective performance, but this study presents a simpler and cheaper approach using colloidal lithography.
- The researchers created large-area nanoplasmonic sensor chips with nanogap antennas made from pairs of gold nanodisks, achieving a uniform plasmonic response and high sensitivity.
- The sensor chips demonstrated a limit of detection of 0.78 nM for the cancer biomarker miRNA-210, enabling direct and label-free detection of low molecular weight biomolecules without additional amplification steps.