Interdisciplinary team shined at SensUs 2020

The TruSense team, comprised of 15 students from diverse backgrounds, including engineering, agriculture, chemistry, economics and biomedical science etc. won the Gold Medal and Public Inspiration Award on SensUs 2020 held from August 26 to 28 online.

Valproic acid（VPA）is the given target of SensUs2020 assigned by the SensUs Organization. VPA is a kind of broad-spectrum anti-epilepsy drug, which is widely used and leads the domestic anti-epilepsy drug market. However, different individuals responses differently to the VPA, and inaccurate dosage of VPA can lead to severe side effects. Thus, regular blood drug monitoring is necessary. The fast portable biosenor of VPA detection can simplify the tedious process of patients to go to the hospital for detection, cut down the time cost and relieve their financial burden.

Interdisciplinarity is challenging, but also means more opportunities. Facing a brand-new subject that can hardly find any relevant research work to refer to, TruSense gives full play to the TruSense spirit, showing the courage and self-confidence to explore and conquer the unknown field,  the responsibility to complete the assigned tasks, and the high-spirited passion and strong cohesion to fight as a whole and finally succeeded in building an innovative biosensing system. Special thanks to Prof. Liang Bo from the School of Biomedical Engineering and Instrument Science and Prof. Huang Liquan from the School of Life Sciences for their technical support!

----- Yuyang Yuan,College of Life Sciences

It has been a journey of curiosity and passion. To develop an original biosensor, all members should be fully devoted and spend countless hours designing, testing and verifying. Such heavy work would discourage the unfaithful ones, but all also reward the people who stay still. Knowledge, research ability, like-minded fellows, and precious friendship… These are what we have gained working together as TruSense. We don't need a huge reason to start. Instead, it takes only a curious attempt, and then we would be infected by the passion of others. I have no regrets about going through these pains. I have gained far more precious things.

----- Haoyu Wu, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology

Participating in the SensUs competition not only improves my scientific research ability, broadens my horizon, but also brings me valuable friendship. This one-year competition has witnessed my own growth and the growth of the team. Thanks for SensUs and everyone for their help along the way.

---- Zhe Chen,College of Life Sciences

With the participation of international academic research groups, companies and healthcare organizations, SensUs, being an international competition launched in 2015 for university students in the field of biosensor health, aims to promote the communications, stimulate the innovative spirit of college students, and promote the development of personalized medical facilities.

The competition adopted an invitation-only system. The TruSense team from Zhejiang University was invited to participate in the competition as the only Asian team for three consecutive years. Teams from universities are required to design and build biosensor systems and business models based on each year’s theme compounds. In the past year, the team has been committed to the rapid portable detection of plasma sodium valproate concentration by giving full play to its interdisciplinary advantages, and has made breakthrough achievements in method research, instrument construction and achievement transformation.