Designing Immunological Assays with Colourful Liquid Crystal Droplets

While liquid crystals are used extensively for displays, their fast and clear optical responses make them excellent candidates as biosensors for detecting toxins and diseases. This upcoming research has started looking into the ability of liquid crystals to sense different types of biomolecules, but detecting specific biomarkers remains a challenge. In this project, we will use chiral liquid crystals, materials that exhibit environment-dependent colour response, and microfluidics to design microscopic biosensor droplets. By harnessing their sensitivity to antigen-antibody interactions, reflected in the colour changes in the visible range, we aim to detect disease-causing agents in a novel manner.