NutriChip: A technological platform for nutrition analysis to promote healthy food

Sandro Carrara of EPFL/LSI, expert in biomedical circuits and systems

Richard Hurrell of ETHZ/DAGRL/ILW, expert in food science and human nutrition

Jeremy Ramsden of UniBasel/CollegiumBasilea, expert in Nano/microtechnologiesandbioinformatics

Guy Vergeres of AgroscopeLiebefeld-Posieux, expert in Nutrigenomics-Dairytechnology

An integrated Lab-on-a-Chip platform is proposed to investigate the effects of food ingestion by humans. The core of the system is an integrated chip, the NutriChip, which will be able to probe the health potential of dairy food samples, using a minimal biomarker set identified through in vivo and in vitro studies. The proposed chip will be a demonstrator of an artificial and miniaturized gastro-intestinal tract (GIT). The NutriChip project will develop innovative CMOS circuits at the nano-scale for high signal-to-noise ratio optical detection of GIT cells by considering the technology node at 90 nm. The project will propose a special microfluidic system which will closely integrate cell-based materials within the chip. The NutriChip project will investigate completely new algorithms for spatial super-resolution on the acquired images to be implemented onto a digital signal processor (DSP) for real-time computing in order to assure a large number of mathematical operations to be performed quickly on an acquired set of data.

The NutriChip will be tested for screening and selection of dairy products with specific health-promoting properties, in particular immuno-modulatory properties. The polymer-based and disposable NutriChip is interfaced by a base control unit, which is a computer-controlled system, comprising pumps, mixers, mechanical & magnetic actuators and multiple storage chambers external to the chip. The CMOS detection chip will be used to image down to single immune cells. For the biochemical validation of the NutriChip platform, we will examine the response of the immune cells upon the application of food, by monitoring the Toll-like receptors 2 (TLR2) and 4 (TLR4). These proteins play a central role in the immune system, are expressed on the surface of immune-competent cells such as monocytes, recognize foreign substances and activate intracellular signalling cascades to induce gene expression. Importantly, TLR4 has recently been recognized as ligand for dietary saturated fat. In addition to their importance as pharmacological drug targets, TLRs are thus key molecules bridging metabolism and immuno-regulation in nutrition.

The Nutrichip project combines multiple nano- and tera-aspects and builds on modern analytical strategies of biology, engineering (microfluidics, nanoparticles, optical detection, superresolution software algorithms) and classical human nutrition research in a clearly multidisciplinary and synergistic approach. Its societal and health relevance is evident by its potential to biologically evaluate in vitro the influence of food quality by monitoring the expression of relevant immune cell biomarkers.
 

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