Sensors That Measure Substances In Blood to Be Lecture Topic

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Simple sensors that measure levels of oxygen, drugs, toxins and other substances in human blood simultaneously and in real time would be a major advance over the current method of detecting only one chemical at a time in a blood sample.

Such sensors are now under development by Frank V. Bright, Ph.D., University at Buffalo professor of chemistry and medicinal chemistry.

They will be the subject of a talk he will give at 7 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27, in Room 201 of the Natural Sciences Complex on the UB North (Amherst) Campus.

The talk, sponsored by the UB Sciences Alumni Association, is free and open to the public.

"As a nation, we spend billions of dollars every year on environmental, medical and monitoring assays for various chemical agents," said Bright. "Most of these assays are performed in well-equipped laboratories and require skilled personnel, large amounts of costly, sometimes dangerous reagents, and demand prolonged analysis times."

In "Real-Time Sensing in Humans?," Bright will discuss his work in developing small-scale, inexpensive sensors that can be used to monitor and quantify important biochemical and chemical species in vivo in real time.

These sensors would be beneficial, Bright explained, because they would sharply reduce the need for expensive, time-consuming and often imprecise diagnostic tests currently performed in clinical laboratories.

For further information about the lecture, contact Cindy Nydahl at 645-2531.