Wearing diamonds on the inside – to monitor biochemistry
Diamonds are biocompatible and cheap enough to be considered for
use as sensors inside the body. Some cancer treatments require
regular monitoring of blood. David Hoxley is investigating the
use of diamond as a sensor of blood chemistry. The area is known
as microfluidics. The challenge is to sensitise diamond so it
responds to biological reactions occurring at the surface of the
diamond. This field of research sees the combined application of
biology and physics. Robyn Williams: A final piece of carbon,
though not quite nano, is in the form of diamond. And to hear
about it we leap to Melbourne. David Hoxley: Hi, my name is
David Hoxley and I'm a physicist from La Trobe University down
in Victoria, and like to talk to you briefly today about my
plans for making implantable diamond biosensors, microfluidic
biosensors for testing the blood of cancer patients. First of
all you might ask yourself, why diamonds? Surely no one can
afford to have an implantabl