At the Institute of Meat Hygiene and Technology, a public event was held in the presence of researchers, industry and competent authorities, where a biosensor for simultaneous and multiple detection of biomarkers relevant to health, animal welfare and food safety was presented, as an innovation resulting from the “Development and Integration” project multiplex of microfluidic biosensors for meat safety monitoring in the farm-slaughterhouse continuum – DIBMES (TT1125)”, Technology Transfer program, Innovation Activity Fund, Republic of Serbia.
The panelists Dr. Ivan Nastasijević, project manager and chief researcher (Institute for Hygiene and Meat Technology), Dr. Vasa Radonjić (Institute Biosens), chief researcher and Dr. Uroš Ćemalović (Institute for European Studies), consultant for rights protection issues of intellectual property presented colleagues the possibilities of practical application of the multiplex, a microfulid biosensor intended for farmers to monitor the health and well-being of animals (detection of biomarkers of indicators of general health and well-being of animals); subjects in the food business (meat industry and other branches of the processing and food industry) in order to control the production process and fulfill legal requirements (criteria for the hygiene of the production process – detection of food-borne pathogens during slaughter and meat processing and processing and criteria for food safety – food storage and distribution), as well as to evaluate their suppliers/farmers (farm biosecurity level); competent authorities (veterinary inspection) and evaluators of certification bodies (to enable fast and reliable diagnostics at the point of evaluation of food safety management systems – farms, slaughterhouses, meat processing); in retail chains (monitoring product safety during its shelf life); consumers who want to check the status of food safety; in biomedicine for personalized medicine (detection of selected blood parameters and contents of the intestinal tract, tumor biomarkers, drug testing), as well as application in environmental monitoring (detection of contaminants in wastewater, etc.
The process of preparing and submitting a patent application in accordance with national and international regulations is also presented, as an outcome necessary to protect the intellectual property rights of the innovation (invention) that resulted from the DIBMES project. The level of technical readiness (Technical Readiness Level – TRL) of the invention is TRL4.
The patent application entitled Microfluidic chamber with integrated biosensor electrodes for simultaneous detection of selected biomarkers was implemented in the Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Serbia under the number P-2024/0348, dated 03/22/2024.
Members of the research team of the DIBMES project
Institute for Hygiene and Meat Technology: Dr. Ivan Nastasijević, project manager (principal researcher), Dr. Saša Janković (researcher), Dr. Radmila Mitrović (researcher).
BioSens Institute: Dr. Vasa Radonić (principal researcher), Dr. Ivana Gađanski Stanić (researcher), Dr. Ivana Kundačina (researcher).
In the following period, according to the recommendation of the Fund for Innovation Activities, it is planned to continue work through the application of project proposals to available national calls for the establishment of a spin-off company (spin-off) and other sources of funding (Horizon Europe) in order to continue work on optimizing the function of biosensors and reaching the level of TRL7, which should lead to the commercialization of the innovation.
