Coffeeiring biosensing (IMAGE)

University of California - Berkeley

Coffeeiring biosensing

Caption

As a droplet of liquid evaporates, any particles suspended in the liquid will naturally migrate to the edge of the droplet, leaving behind a “coffee-ring” pattern when the liquid fully dries. UC Berkeley engineers used this natural phenomena to boost the sensitivity of diagnostic tests by pre-concentrating disease biomarkers into a ring pattern. This illustration shows a ring of disease biomarkers, in purple, interacting with a droplet of liquid that contains plasmonic nanoparticles. These plasmonic nanoparticles bind to the disease biomarkers and generate patterns of light that can be spotted by using an AI-powered smartphone app.

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Megan Teng/UC Berkeley

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