SensUs

SensUs Student Competition

SensUs is the yearly international student competition on molecular biosensors for healthcare applications. Teams of students at international universities design and build innovative biosensing systems, and demonstrate and present their prototypes to a broad audience during a public final contest event. The competition aims to stimulate education and innovation in the field of biosensing, with a worldwide scope. The longterm aim is to improve the quality of life of patients.

Contents

• SensUs Student Competition
• SensUs 2016
• SensUs 2017
• Trends in healthcare
• Approach of the competition
• References

SensUs 2016

SensUs 2016 was the first edition of the competition. The aim was to develop biosensors for the measurement of creatinine in blood plasma, which is a key biomarker for kidney failure. The student teams originated from five universities: University of Leuven, Imperial College London, Uppsala University, Technical University of Denmark, and Eindhoven University of Technology. The teams had worked during 9 months to develop biosensors in their own universities, and thereafter all came to the final contest event on the 9th and 10 September 2016 at Eindhoven University of Technology. Reports, photos and movies of SensUs 2016 can be found in Ref.

SensUs 2017

SensUs 2017 is the second edition of the yearly competition. The biomarker that is to be measured is NT-proBNP in blood plasma, which is a key biomarker for heart failure. The competing student teams are based in ten universities, spread over three continents: University of Leuven, Imperial College London, Uppsala University, Technical University of Denmark, Eindhoven University of Technology, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, The American University in Cairo, North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Glasgow, and University of Applied Sciences Kaiserslautern. The final contest will take place on the 8th and 9 September 2017 in Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Trends in healthcare

Healthcare is developing towards highly personalized treatments, attuned to the needs of patients, based on real time, precise and reliable data. Important enablers are miniaturized and easy to use biochemical sensing devices, which will help to improve the monitoring, treatment and coaching of patients. This includes sensing systems for near-patient testing (point-of-care) as well as small systems that are worn on or in the body (sensors for monitoring applications). As a consequence, over the coming decades biochemical sensing technologies are needed which are small, sensitive, accurate, easy to use, cost effective, and versatile.

Approach of the competition

Each year SensUs selects a well-defined goal that is to be targeted by the participating teams, e.g. a molecular biomarker that is to be measured. With the same functional end goal, the teams develop creative solutions and unique biosensor prototypes. At the contest all prototypes are shown, shared, appreciated, and discussed. In this way, SensUs is an international platform for learning, for the generation of novel solutions, and for open innovations in the field of molecular biosensors for healthcare applications.