About
The Biosensors Lab at the Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology (IMBB-FORTH) focuses on the development of molecular diagnostic assays and biosensing technologies for applications in health, water and One Health surveillance. The lab has strong expertise in point-of-care (PoC) molecular diagnostics, including in-house primer design pipelines, isothermal amplification, multiplex assays and detection of single-nucleotide variants, enabling rapid and decentralized testing.
A key strength of the lab is the translation of research outputs into deployable products, through close collaboration with industry and spin-off activities ensuring that developed diagnostic solutions move beyond proof-of-concept towards validated, user-oriented PoC platforms.
In addition to infectious and microbial diagnostics, the lab develops molecular assays for genetic diseases caused by single-point mutations, such as hemoglobinopathies (e.g. sickle cell anemia) and cancer-related variants (e.g. breast cancer), supporting early detection and personalised medicine approaches.
Within a One Health and preparedness framework, the lab addresses challenges related to infectious diseases, microbial contamination, and water-related health risks, contributing to early diagnosis, surveillance, and response to cross-border health threats.
The Biosensors Lab has extensive experience in EU-funded Horizon Europe projects focusing on PoC molecular diagnostics for preparedness, public health surveillance and environmental monitoring and acts as a technology and assay development partner in collaborative consortia.
Indicative EU projects:
DxHub (Horizon Europe) — funded under HORIZON-HLTH calls on infectious disease preparedness and cross-border health threats, focusing on point-of-care diagnostic innovation and deployment.
UniHealth (Horizon Europe) — funded under HORIZON-HLTH One Health and pandemic preparedness calls, addressing surveillance of emergency-prone pathogens across human, animal, and environmental interfaces.
Free@POC (Horizon Europe) — funded under HORIZON-HLTH calls on innovative point-of-care diagnostics, aiming at affordable, decentralised molecular testing for infectious diseases and health system resilience.
AquaBioSens (Horizon Europe, Zero Pollution) — funded under HORIZON-CL6 calls on water quality, pollution prevention, and environmental monitoring, developing on-site molecular sensing solutions for biological hazards in aquatic environments.
TechOceans (Horizon Europe) — funded under HORIZON-CL6 calls on healthy oceans, seas, and coastal waters, contributing molecular sensing tools for marine and environmental health monitoring relevant to One Health.
IRIS-COV (EU emergency / health preparedness action) — supported under EU emergency health response and pandemic preparedness instruments, focusing on rapid PoC molecular diagnostics for respiratory viruses.