Sencil

Overview

Sencil At Work

In order to manage certain diseases and conditions, it is important to make frequent measurements of specific analytes over an extended period of time. These include diabetes, cancer chemotherapy treatment, and hormonal monitoring for fertility and pregnancy. Although biosensors have been used in clinical application for decades, most of the commercialized products are intended for in vitro assays of collected fluid samples. A major disadvantage of the in vitro sensors is that they cannot provide frequent enough measurements to optimize patient treatment.

The Sencil is a platform technology that employs a disposable minimally invasive semichronic percutaneous photonic optical fiber port to monitor analyte concentrations in vivo over a period of 1-3 months.

Technical challenges faced by in vivo biosensors include:
1. Low analyte concentrations
2. Many competing biochemicals
3. Variable conditions in the patient
4. Long-term use vs. biodegradation of the reactants

The Sencil System (Patents Pending) consists of an external monitor module (photonic analyzer) and a biosensor.

The biosensor device (Sencil, Figure 1) is comprised of an optical fiber that extends through the patient's skin and a biosensor element attached to the end of the fiber that is inserted percutaneously to sample interstitial fluid. We call this a Sencil, for “sensory cilium”. The external end of the fiber will be attached to a photonic analyzer by means of a connector that accepts the free end of the fiber. The analyzer sends excitation light through the fiber to reach the biosensor element and receives returning fluorescent emissions from the biosensing element through the same fiber.

Sencil vs. Human Hair


Alfred Mann Institute University of Southern California