Thomas Mortelmans has been a PhD at the Laboratory for X-ray Nanosciences and Technologies for the last four years. He recently defended his PhD-thesis at the University of Basel entitled: "The development of a nanofluidic particle size sorter and its biomedical sciences" and was awarded the grade of summa cum laude.
The majority of his work at LXN revolved around the fabrication of a quantitative antibody test that can simultaneously identify COVID-19 and Influenza A-associated antibodies. On top of this, Thomas’ test can also concurrently detect short-term (IgM), as well as long-term (IgG) antibodies. In doing so, it could possible predict disease outcome. The developed technology has the potential of making a meaningful impact in the diagnostic landscape and was published in ACS Applied Nanomaterials (https://bit.ly/3uOVTvX) in January.
The published paper was awarded at this year’s Swiss Nanoconvention with the Swiss Nanotechnology PhD award, sponsored by Sensirion. This prize is awarded to excellent scientific first-author publications in the field of Nanotechnology and Nanoscience. In addition, a microscopy image of the device was given the Best Image Award.