Alfie Gatehouse

Engineered Hydrogel nanopores for the detection of cell free nucleic acids (cfNAs) as diagnostic tool for prostate cancer

Earlier detection of prostate cancer is of high importance to improve the efficacy of treatment. CfNAs have shown promise as non-invasive biomarkers for cancers however due to their small sizes (typically < 200 base pairs) and low abundance, developing devices sensitive enough for detection has been an issue. Nanopores offer the ability of single molecule detection and through the integration of hydrogel matrices, the project aims to develop a device with the necessary sensitivity and selectivity to offer real-time detection of prostate cancer.

Mini-bio

• PhD Chemical Biology, Institute of Chemical Biology, Imperial College, London (Current). 
• MRes Green Chemistry, Imperial College, London (2018)
• BSc Chemistry, Kingston University (2016)