City University team aims to develop portable drug sensors

After receiving follow-on funding from the EPSRC, the team is aiming to create commercially viable sensors that are capable of detecting multiple drugs.

The scientists have been working on drug sensors over the past three years and have so far managed to successfully develop an optical-fibre drug sensor capable of detecting cocaine.

Prof Tong Sun, project leader and an expert in sensor engineering at City University, told The Engineer that optical-fibre drug sensors are small and light, which makes them suitable for multi-drug detection.

Sun said that the relationship between a sensor and a target molecule is like a ‘lock and key’. ‘We use the Molecular Imprinted Polymer [MIP] technique to create this relationship artificially,’ she said.

‘MIP is used to form a polymer sensor material [the “lock”] in the presence of a specific drug molecule [the “key”]. This drug is then extracted, leaving recognition sites — effectively “keyholes” that give the sensor material an affinity towards the drug.’