Where Can DMF-SERS Be Implemented in Clinical Settings?

The Spring SciX Conference back in April 14–16^th, 2026, gave industry professionals, researchers, and instrument manufacturers the opportunity to gather at the University of Exeter to network, share their research findings, and discuss the latest trends and developments in analytical spectroscopy.

As part of our coverage of Spring SciX, we sat down with Sian Sloan-Dennison, who is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Strathclyde, who delivered a talk that introduced a rapid diagnostic platform for detecting drug-induced liver injury (DILI), a serious condition caused by prescription and over-the-counter medications. In this interview clip, Sloan-Dennison discusses how a new digital microfluidics surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (DMF-SERS) platform be implemented in clinical settings.

So what prompted this examination of new DILI diagnostic methods?

Sloan-Dennison and her team investigated how SERS could advance DILI diagnostics because current methods have severe limitations that limit their widespread adoption, as well as their effectiveness. Timely clinical decisions are often delayed using these pre-existing methods because of slow turnaround times and biomarkers that lack liver specificity.² By developing a SERS-based magnetic hybridization assay targeting microRNA-122, a liver-specific biomarker, the researchers hoped that it could alleviate some of the current problems with traditional methods.

What made their study unique?

Assays are traditionally performed in bulk solution, but in this case, Sloan-Dennison and her team added a new wrinkle to their investigation. To reduce the sample volume requirements while improving sensitivity, reproducibility, and automation, they transferred it onto a digital microfluidics (DMF) platform.² The DMF platform manipulates nanoliter droplets on a programmable chip, enabling integrated sample handling and analysis.² Coupled with a portable Raman spectrometer, the DMF-SERS system achieved approximately 100-fold greater sensitivity than the solution-based assay and demonstrated promising preliminary results in human samples, supporting its potential as a point-of-care diagnostic technology.²

You can view all our coverage of the Spring SciX conference by accessing our conference landing page.

References

1. Wetzel, W.; Spectroscopy Staff. Previewing Spring SciX 2026. Spectroscopy. Available at: https://www.spectroscopyonline.com/view/previewing-spring-scix-2026 (accessed 2026-05-06).
2. Sloan-Dennison, S. Droplets to Diagnosis: Digital Microfluidic SERS Detection of microRNA-122. Presented at Spring SciX, Exeter, United Kingdom, 2026. Available at: https://rapide-diagnostics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Spring-SciX-Programme.pdf