SCENT: Hybrid gels for rapid microbial detection

This ERC Starting Grant has been awarded to Prof. Cecília Roque in 2014 to develop the urgently needed tools for rapid identification of bacterial infections.

Antimicrobial resistant bacteria are a global threat to the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections, causing over 25,000 deaths annually in the EU and costing over €1.5 billion a year. At present, microbial detection and identification takes between 24 and 36 hours, but for slow-growing bacteria, such as those causing tuberculosis, it can take more than a week.

Unusual human odours have been recognised as disease indicators since Hippocrates. We are developing bioinspired nose sensors as a fast and needle-free method of microbial detection. We are using new types of stimulus-responsive materials to detect and identify bacteria, in particular those most prevalent in human infections and associated with antibiotic resistance. The research will reduce detection times to a matter of seconds, and the research team hopes that by identifying bacterial infections so much sooner, lives will be saved, antibiotic abuse restrained, and the spread of infection better controlled.

To learn more about this project, please consult our publications (open access):

2022

Moreira, IP, Esteves C, Palma SICJ, Ramou E, Carvalho ALM, Roque ACA.  2022.  Synergy between silk fibroin and ionic liquids for active gas-sensing materials, Materials Today Bio. 15:100290.

Esteves, C, Palma SICJ, Costa HMA, Alves C, Santos GMC, Ramou E, Carvalho AL, Alves V, Roque ACA.  2022.  Tackling Humidity with Designer Ionic Liquid-Based Gas Sensing Soft Materials. Advanced Materials. 34:2107205.

Ramou, E, Palma SICJ, Roque ACA.  2022.  Nanoscale Events on Cyanobiphenyl-Based Self-Assembled Droplets Triggered by Gas Analytes. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. 14(4):6261-6273.

Conference papers:

Palma, SICJ, Frazao J, Alves R, Costa HMA, Alves C, Gamboa H, Silveira M, Roque ACA.  2022.  Learning to see VOCs with Liquid Crystal Droplets. 2022. IEEE International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose (ISOEN): 1–4.

Esteves, C, Palma S, Costa H, Alves C, Santos G, Ramou E, Roque AC.  2022.  VOC Sensing in Humid and Dry Environments. 2022 IEEE International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose (ISOEN): 1–3.

Oliveira, A, Ramou E, Teixeira G, Palma S, Roque A.  2022.  Incorporation of VOC-Selective Peptides in Gas Sensing Materials. Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies: 25–34.

Alves, R, Rodrigues J, Ramou E, Palma S, Roque A, Gamboa H.  2022.  Classification of Volatile Compounds with Morphological Analysis of e-nose Response. Proceedings of the 15th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies - BIOSIGNALS: 31–39.

2021

Gonçalves, WB, Cervantes EP, Pádua ACCS, Santos G, Palma SICJ, Li RWC, Roque ACA, Gruber J.  2021.  Ionogels Based on a Single Ionic Liquid for Electronic Nose Application, Chemosensors. 9(201).

Frazão, J, Palma SICJ, Costa HMA, Alves C, Roque ACA, Silveira M.  2021.  Optical Gas Sensing with Liquid Crystal Droplets and Convolutional Neural Networks. Sensors. 21(8):2854.

Ramou, E, Rebordao G, Palma SICJ, Roque ACA.  2021.  Stable and Oriented Liquid Crystal Droplets Stabilized by Imidazolium Ionic Liquids. MOLECULES. 26(19):6044.

Conference papers:

Moreira, IP, Sato L, Alves C, Palma S, Roque AC.  2021. Fish Gelatin-based Films for Gas Sensing. Proceedings of BIODEVICES 2021 - 14th International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices; Part of the 14th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2021.: 32–39.

2020

Rebordão, G, Palma SICJ, Roque ACA.  2020.  Microfluidics in Gas Sensing and Artificial Olfaction. Sensors . 20(20):5742.

Rodrigues, R, Palma SICJ, Correia VJ, Padrao I, Pais J, Banza M, Alves C, Deuermeier J, Martins C, Costa HMA, Ramou E, Silva Pereira C, Roque ACA. 2020. Sustainable plant polyesters as substrates for optical gas sensors. Materials Today Bio. 8:100083

Esteves, C, Ramou E, Porteira ARP, Barbosa AJM, Roque ACA.  2020.  Seeing the Unseen: The Role of Liquid Crystals in Gas‐Sensing Technologies. Advanced Optical Materials. 1902117:1-29.

2019

Esteves C, Santos GMC, Alves C, Palma S, Porteira AR, Filho J, Costa HMA, Alves VD, Faustino BMM, Ferreira I, Gamboa H, Roque ACA. 2019. Effect of film thickness in gelatin hybrid gels for artificial olfaction. Materials Today Bio. 1. 

Maugeri, G, Lychko I, Sobral R, Roque ACA. 2019. Identification and Antibiotic-Susceptibility Profiling of Infectious Bacterial Agents: A Review of Current and FutureTrends. Biotechnology Journal. 14(1700750). 

Conference papers:

Palma, SICJ, Esteves C, Pádua AC, Alves CM, Santos GMC, Costa HMA, Dionisio M, Gamboa H, Gruber J, Roque ACA.  2019.   Enhanced gas sensing with soft functional materials, May 2019. ISOEN 2019 - 18th International Symposium on Olfaction and Electronic Nose, Proceedings. , Fukuoka, Japan: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.

Roque, ACA, Fred A, Gamboa H.  2019.  Foreword, January 2019. BIODEVICES 2019 - 12th International Conference on Biomedical Electronics and Devices, Proceedings; Part of 12th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies, BIOSTEC 2019. 

Pádua, AC, Gruber J, Gamboa H, Roque ACA. 2019. Impact of Sensing Film’s Production Method on Classification Accuracy by Electronic Nose. Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: BIODEVICES. Prague, Czech Republic.

Santos, G, Alves C, Pádua AC, Palma S, Gamboa H, Roque ACA.  2019. An Optimized E-nose for Efficient Volatile Sensing and Discrimination. Proceedings of the 12th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies - Volume 1: BIODEVICE, Prague, Czech Republic.

2018

Barbosa, AJM, Oliveira AR, Roque ACA. 2018. Protein- and Peptide-Based Biosensors in Artificial Olfaction. Trends in Biotechnology. 36(12):1244-1258. 

Semeano, ATS, Maffei DF, Palma S, Li RWC, Franco BDGM, Roque ACA, Gruber J.  2018.  Tilapia fish microbial spoilage monitored by a single optical gas sensor. Food Control. 89:72-76. 

Palma, S, Traguedo AP, Porteira AR, Frias MJ, Gamboa H, Roque ACA. 2018. Machine learning for the meta-analyses of microbial pathogens’ volatile signatures. Scientific Reports. 8:3360. 

Conference papers:

Pádua, AC, Osório D, Rodrigues J, Santos G, Porteira AR, Palma S, Roque ACA, Gamboa H. 2018. Scalable and Easy-to-use System Architecture for Electronic Noses. In Proceedings of the 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies. 179-186. 

Pádua, AC, Palma S, Gruber J, Gamboa H, Roque ACA. 2018. Design and Evolution of an Opto-electronic Device for VOCs Detection. Proceedings of the 11th International Joint Conference on Biomedical Engineering Systems and Technologies:48-55. 

2017

Hussain, A, Semeano ATS, Palma S, Pina AS, Almeida J, Medrado BF, Pádua AC, Carvalho AL, Dionísio M, Li RWC, Gamboa H, Ulijn RV, Gruber J, Roque ACA. 2017. Tunable Gas Sensing Gels by Cooperative Assembly. Advanced Functional Materials. 1700803:1–9.