Detecting micro- and nanoplastics is one of the greatest scientific challenges in environmental and biomedical research. As these particles become smaller, they become increasingly difficult to identify, measure, and distinguish within complex biological and environmental systems. Developing reliable detection technologies is an essential step toward understanding where these particles are found, how they interact with living systems, and how future monitoring strategies can be improved.

In this episode of the ALLATRA Global Research Center Podcast, John Ahn, Ph.D., MBA, Chief Scientist and Chair, ALLATRA Global Research Center, speaks with Shalini Prasad, Ph.D., Head of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, Co-Founder, EnLiSense LLC. A pioneer in biosensors, electrochemical diagnostics, and nanotechnology, Dr. Prasad explores how advances in biosensing, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, and materials science are opening new possibilities for detecting micro- and nanoplastics in water, food, biological fluids, and environmental samples.

The conversation highlights the science behind next-generation detection technologies for micro- and nanoplastics, exploring the engineering principles, analytical challenges, and emerging approaches that could improve future environmental and biomedical monitoring. 

In this episode:

🔹 Why detecting nano-sized plastics remains one of the key analytical challenges

🔹 How electrochemical impedance spectroscopy can identify micro- and nanoplastics

🔹 Why particle size, charge, and morphology influence biological interactions

🔹 Emerging biosensor technologies for environmental and biomedical monitoring

🔹 From laboratory research to real-world applications: what it takes to commercialize scientific innovations

🔹 Future opportunities for large-scale monitoring of micro- and nanoplastics

Learn more about Dr. Shalini Prasad's research:

https://profiles.utdallas.edu/shalini.prasad

Report of the ALLATRA Global Research Center

"Nanoplastics. A Systematic Risk Analysis for Human Health, Ecosystems, and the Environment"

https://allatra.org/global-research-center/publications/agrc.report.mnp.2026.04001

The podcast is hosted on the ALLATRA Global Research Center platform.

This material is for informational and discussion purposes only. The statements, assessments, interpretations, conclusions, and hypotheses contained herein represent personal views of their authors as of the date of publication and do not constitute an official stance of the ALLATRA international organization or any other public association, organization, project, partner, or affiliated entity or person, unless expressly stated otherwise.

Publication of this material provides an opportunity for open discussion and does not in itself imply institutional endorsement, confirmation, or scientific verification of the views expressed. The material does not constitute an official statement, expert opinion, or professional advice.

Full Podcast Transcript

John Ahn, Ph.D.

What is so special about micro- nanoplastics?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

The reactivity of that surface is going to be significant. This dimensionality is going to drive primarily reaction processes. The fact that the particle is in this dimension has the ability to drive an interaction, right, with your biological material, and that causes an inflammatory response. Once it does that the inflammatory response triggers your macrophages. So the size is the driver and the size and its ability to drive the inflammatory response is the key thing that impacts the human body.

Voiceover

Doctor Shalini Prasad is a professor and head of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research brings together bioengineering, nanotechnology and biosensing, with applications ranging from human health and disease monitoring to food safety and environmental detection.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Hello and welcome to today's podcast from the ALLATRA Global Research Centre. My name is John Ahn, your host. Today I'm delighted to welcome Doctor Shalini Prasad. So Doctor Prasad,  it’s really a pleasure to have you here today.

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

Likewise, I'm really delighted to be on this podcast with you, John.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Thank you very much. So let us start with your own journey. So what first drew you to bioengineering and nanotechnology, and how did it early curiosity lead to the work that you and your lab are doing today?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

So my original training, if you will, was in classical electrical engineering. So this is where I did my undergraduate degree in India, and it was very much tied into signal processing and signal detection. But when I came for my PhD, I came to California and that was the onset of the nano revolution, if you will, and the start of the Silicon Valley. But I was in Southern California, and my PhD advisor was at that point working on what's called a “DARPA Hard” project, so which is the idea of how do you understand communication between neurons using semiconductors, towards essentially being able to predict whether a soldier has gotten exposure to nerve agents, which don't have any smell. And so how will the neurons in their brain behave. 

So this question is quite a multifaceted, multidimensional question. You're talking about neurotransmitters which are in the nano scale. You're trying to pull a signal onto a semiconductor chip which is in the micro scale. On top of that, you've got biological elements. So you're going to build on swarms of neurons on top of it. So to understand and essentially, you know, unpack the various dimensions of this problem required was a trained electrical engineer to transition and become, you know, learning biology. So learning biology, neuroscience and incorporating it into material science. So that's when I realized the truth of solving, especially engineering problems lying and understanding how science works. And in that context, especially nanoscience, and material science play an important role. So this is how, you know, I got into this area and since then I've taken it to application space. So I've been looking more into sensor development. But at the core, it is the fundamentals that you have to understand well to solve these problems.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Yes, of course, I also understand it as a scientist, when you understand the fundamentals, then you can apply to many things and solve different problems. So I completely agree with that. So in this field, I just want to get your broad perspective. Like you've been in this field for many years and  from what you've seen, like what advances in biosensing and diagnostic technologies have excited you most over the past decade or so? And how have they changed the ability to understand biological systems?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

Size is everything. Size matching is everything. So when you want to understand molecular level measurements, you need to have systems which will match to the size to get very strong signal transduction. This is the fundamental premise, right, of everything. So when I started my PhD in 2001, there was this big push towards building microscale systems, which are called now point-of-care devices or lab-on-a-chip systems. And the idea there was, how do you take these large laboratory chemistry analytical processes and shrink it down into microscale, leveraging the knowledge you have in semiconductor design and applying it to this platform so that you can measure multiple things at the same time. 

You can have a liquid reagent mixing happening on a single chip. And so that, you know, you have reporting occurring really fast. So you're not waiting for a clinical workflow or a turnaround time that can be anywhere from a day to about a week. So that's where we were 20 odd years ago. 

So now with the idea of designing novel materials which have novel function associated with them, or material with multiple functions associated with  that, the ability to design sensors is now not restricted to making like this lab-on-a-chip, but you can talk about completely noninvasive wearables, biomorphic systems, things that are going to help you to understand how we are at this point by interfacing with the human directly, right? 

So this is the onset of the wearable generation, not just the continuous glucose monitors——that was the start. But then today, the idea is how can you measure every aspect of body activity? So biophysical, biochemical,  biosignals, integrating all of this. 

And of course, on top of that, you overlay the AI strength that we currently have access to. And with the idea then is not only are we just measuring and monitoring, but we are able to then predict how we may be in specific intervals of time, because if we know how we are going to be in the future, then you can make corrections at the present that will then impact the future, right? So that is the vision and the value proposition that we currently have, which novel material systems along with everything else this entire ecosystem of engineering can help us solve.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Are there any other properties that are as important as the size? Or is the size, again, the most important thing? Or is there like charge or shape? Or is it size, again, is the most important parameter for these nanomaterials?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

So I think…

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Why is it important?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

Yes, sure. So I think let's start with size. Size. Is this whole idea about size matching, right? So if you want to get a good signal over noise. So signal being whatever, if you're trying to measure the presence of a micro- or nano scale particle, but then you're having, perhaps, a micro- or nano scale cavity into which you're trapping this particle. So, the size scale being the same, then the effect of the environment, which could be the body fluid or it could be,  you know,  food matrices, so on and so forth, so the interference from the noise of those signals are going to be very much mitigated. And your signal is very much going to be driven due to this interaction of the size matching that would happen. So that's the first thing. 

The second thing is, as you rightly articulated, charge. Charge is very important because charge dictates the kind of interaction this particular molecule or this particle that you're going to go after, or you're trying to measure, works with the material system from which you're trying to measure. So you can have electrostatic interactions, covalent, which is completely permanent. So you have a full binding and you cannot release it. So it's a single measurement sensor system that you would design. With that you can have van der Waals interactions, which are relatively weak, but still will give you enough such that you can pull out a signal. So the second thing that is important is the charge. Then the third thing is the shape, right? So when you talk about shape, right, I think biology teaches this very well.

So if you look at a protein and the protein has not just the primary and the secondary structure, it binds finally into a tertiary structure. The efficacy of the protein is very much dependent upon its tertiary structure.

So if you then took the protein outside the body and put it on a glass coverslip and it stretches itself out, it is not going to function. It loses its functionality to what it had within the body. So this idea of keeping that conformation, right, that shape is critical for you to keep the effectiveness. 

So now you take that and if you're thinking of it in the context of particles, the effect of round particles perhaps on our biological systems are far less than things which have increased surface area, and this increased surface area will also have a distributed charge along with it. So these things, something that looks like a kidney bean, for example, is going to be far more impactful in its negative effect, if you will, rather than something that is spherical.

So characterizing this as a function of time and a function of the microenvironment, which could be acids, bases acting on the material, you'll start creating primarily deformations that occur, and they don't occur in a consistent manner.

So now this then impacts the effective charge that this shape of the molecule is going to impact. So it's a trifecta of size charge and the shape that come together for us when we have to design systems that can measure, especially for things that are very small.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

And what's the best way to measure or characterize these things? I mean, charge, it could be okay. Like if you just measure overall charge, zeta potential —okay, that's one thing. But what if the charge is heterogeneous or spatially distributed? That's quite challenging, right? 

And the other question is for morphology: do you have to use some kind of microscope to okay, this is an elongated piece or this is a sphere-like, or it's some other shape. How do we characterize, let's say the charge and as well as morphology, what are the good ways to characterize them? Or is there a good way to do it with today's state of the art?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

So the ability to characterize these parameters in a laboratory is going to be, as, you know, different than what you would want to then build on to a handheld system or a system that can be deployed in the field. 

So let's first start with the charge piece of it. Now there are many techniques that are there, but electrochemistry lends itself very well for both measuring it within the lab and taking it outside the lab and putting it on a field instrument or a handheld instrument. 

And one of the techniques that works very well is electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. So what impedance spectroscopy does is that it allows you to characterize the charge of both charged as well as uncharged species. What do I mean by this? Right? So if you have essentially a polymeric system,  some of the polymers do not… Many of them have a negative charge or a positive charge along this surface. But there are some that are relatively uncharged, but they all have dielectric property associated with it, because the ability for that polymeric material to store charge exists, it might be very less. It's like a leaky dielectric, but it exists nonetheless. So when you're using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, what you're doing is that you are taking these particles and they are in some kind of a buffer or a body fluid or some liquid.

This liquid then becomes the electrolyte, and the electrolytes charge is going to be the baseline charge. And so you can characterize that when you scan over a range of frequencies going from a low frequency, which can go all the way from millihertz to megahertz. Now the effect of the small particles which are immobilized in the fluid or suspended in the fluid is going to be very much occurring at the lower frequency. So anything under about five kilohertz, most likely happening in the Hertz regime is where you're going to see this effect. How do you see this effect? You see this as what is called as a double-layer capacitance.
So this particle essentially modulates the double layer so that as in zeta potential, you do have the double layer that's forming at the particle interface. And you are able to measure this. But instead of having a zeta sizer, you're able to do this in a solution phase using an electrode surface, which is going to be your sensor.

So if this charge characterization, whether it's small or large, is translated into an impedance measurement, and then you simplify that impedance measurement by breaking it down into its real and imaginary components. And the imaginary component has the capacitance. And this capacitance can then be associated or correlated with the charge of your target species.

Now the frequency at which you're going to see this is going to change as by the frequency of the type of your dielectric. And the type of the dielectric is very much associated with the type of the polymer that you're coming after. So you can essentially characterize multiplexing or do a range of polymers of different molecular weight, pretty much using this electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.  
Now the second part is the morphology of it. Now for morphology, of course, you can look at atomic force microscopy, which will help you characterize, you know, the indentation of the surface, scanning electron microscopy. All of these are fixed techniques. So in liquid, if you want to characterize some of this, that's where the challenge lies, right? Because then what you typically end up doing is that you try to characterize filled versus unfilled fluid systems. And from that, you're trying to deconvolve  essentially the shape of these systems, it's very tough to do. So you will have to use AFM or SEM to do this. And of course, at times you will use Raman to understand agglomeration of particles, but not so much as the particle shape. So this is the ways in which you would do morphology and charge.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

For morphology its certain shape is more difficult to characterize. And the other is sphere more easier than elongated  pieces or is it at the same dependent? It doesn't really matter what.

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

Those are by far the easiest. And what you try to do mathematically is any imaging technique. You try to figure out how can you resolve it so that it can look as spheroid as possible, right? So you try to come to that system. Any shape that is not symmetrical is tough to characterize, right? So symmetric shapes are slightly easier. So things which can look elliptical and so on are easier. But the toughest is going to be when you don't have any symmetry. And also the thickness of the particle changes as a function of… along, say, the lateral axis or the main axis if you're looking at the distribution. So that's why we end up having to resort to lab-based techniques where you do sample fixing and sample re-characterization.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Great. So of course, when all these particles, I mean, we just talked about size, the charge, and morphology. So whatever these nanoparticles, micro- and nanoparticles are, I mean they're going to be ending up in different environments, biological fluids, right. And when they enter these environments, they're going to be coated with all kinds of stuff like proteins, lipids, whatever, you know, metals, whatever is in the environment. So could you describe how that transformation looks like, and how that complicates in terms of analyzing these samples and predicting their behavior?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

So as we started, right, so particles have charge. So now they're in a biological fluid which comprises of ions. It comprises of proteins, it comprises of cell debris and so on, depending on where it is. So if it is just ex vivo in a body fluid that has been collected, then the effect of the proteins, the lipids, as well as the salts are going to be significant. It's going to cause multiple things. 

It's going to have surface reactions on these particles, which means the particle is going to get degraded or eroded in some fashion because of the acid base, depending on… most likely the fluid will be acidic in nature and it will have essentially a, you know, an interaction, a chemical interaction. 

The second thing that does is then this creates essentially enhancement to the surface areas. So now what happens is the proteins that are there, they will start to agglomerate on top of it. So now you're going to create primarily a matrix which comprises of these particles embedded primarily in a lot of proteins. It looks like a very gunky thing.

So now in this, if you have to determine how many particles there are by volume, it's a very challenging problem, right? So now the problem has compounded itself multifold. And for you to characterize it, you're going to have to break down that mix, that matrix that has formed, and then um resolve the signal. The longer the particles stay in the fluid, the longer will be these reactions and the longer will be the formation of these agglomerated surfaces, right? 

So then characterizing becomes challenging because you've got an organic-inorganic mix. And how you characterize organic material is different from inorganic. So what we have to then do is we have to do sample preparation. So the way we would do that, that is we would use some form of an acid digestion to break down this and then identify the inorganic material in it, and then go and characterize the inorganic material using, as I said, impedance spectroscopy or some other technique that will allow us to determine both the the concentration and also the size of the particle.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

In some sense, doesn't that, in a way, complicate the analysis? Because, you know, like in a real world, these nanoparticles are coated with eco and bio coronas and they interact with cells and membranes in certain ways. But then when you analyze it, you have to strip all that down. And you, you analyze essentially the clean particles. So if you're a biologist, like how do you account for that? I mean, you want to analyze the particle when it's in real surroundings, right? But at the same time, you have to analyze this inorganic part. You have to strip all this, all this corona. So how do you account for all these…  I'm not sure if the differences is the right word, but if you strip down, the particle you analyze is going to be different from what is actually in the environment. So how do you  account for that?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

Yes. So this is exactly the same thing as the idea of macromolecular crowding, which is what the core of any of characterization is. So,   this goes back to the original biological problem. 

If you want to characterize a protein in its native form, then you have to figure out a totally in-situ way of characterizing it so that it maintains its conformation. Whereas if you take it out and it's an ex vivo system, it basically loses its tertiary characteristics, and then you're not able to get the signal. 

So the way you have to do this is you have to trap it in a void where you know what the effective volume of that system is, and then you're able to do some kind of a subtraction characterization. That's what's the fundamentals of macromolecular, biological macromolecular crowding. 

So if you take that idea and try to apply it here, the organic material is going to have a… and again, you have to pick a spectroscopic technique because ultimately that is the technique that will allow you to use frequency to resolve the various signal aspects associated with the organic material and the inorganic material. So if you have to do pre-sample pre-processing in the lab, when you do it and you characterize it, you're right, you will have a neat signal associated with inorganic material, which is going to be a polymer particulate material.

And you'll have a signal associated with the organic material which is present, you know, totally. Think of it as a reference library. Then you go back to your sample itself, which is going to have the composite of this to the bio-coronas, which then interact, and then you form these big micelles and then you have all of that together.  

It becomes important how slowly you actually use the frequency sweep to characterize this composite, because when you do that, then you can take that signal and you then apply signal segmentation, AI methods to resolve what aspect of the signal can be associated with the organic and inorganic. 

And then what can be specifically associated with a specific polymeric material system, like PVC versus polypyrrole, so on and so forth. Because most of them otherwise, if you just look at charge, the DC component of it, they will all be negatively charged, right? Or they'll be all positively charged depending on what you're looking at. 

That's not going to be helpful to you. Their dielectric properties are going to be helpful, but that's going to be masked by this organic materials presence.

So that's how you deconvolve that signal. And this idea of deconvolution is very similar to what  transform infrared spectroscopy does. What it does there is you polarize the molecule of interest, and then you figure out what the molecule really is. So you take the same approach, but you're now saying, I can distinguish between organic versus inorganic material taking this particular strategy. And that's how you would do it in an in-field application. 

But for the lab to build the database, you have to do it exactly: strip it all down, characterize it. But the signal in itself is not a complete signal. And what happens is the signal changes as the morphology of that same material changes. 

So you have to characterize for certain sets of morphologies. Yes, it is very empirical.
And yes, it is not where we want it to be. But that's kind of where we are from not having anything before. And that's why I'm very excited. This field right now is probably very hot just because of the fact that now there's suddenly a lot of interest. And how this is impacting our physical health. And so that's why resources are being directed to solving these problems.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

I see, so you're basically stripping it down, you measure it, I guess it's sort of like a reference material. And then you measure like less strict version and then you look at the results. So that's what you mean by deconvoluting, right?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

Exactly. Correct. So. Yes.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Understood. Yeah. Great. So let's now dive more deeper into.. I mean, we talked about generally about nanomaterials. Now let's dive into microplastics and nanoplastics. What is the difference between micro- and nanoplastics versus generally the micro- and nano materials? So what is so special about  micro- and nanoplastics?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

So plastics are primarily polymeric materials, certain recurring chemical chains. And what happens is in that dimensionality, their activity is significant. So the reactivity of that surface is going to be significant as a result of which a micro- and a nanoparticle by size can be the same, but its surface activity and surface performance of a  micro- and nanoplastic is going to be the one that is driving essentially modulations to the biological process. 

So that to me is the key distinction as to why you would want to.. the challenge of characterizing a  micro- and nanoplastic is far more than a micro- and nanomaterial, which could be a metallic, semiconducting, or it could be a pure dielectric material, right? In this case, you're dealing with primarily quasi dielectric systems. And in these leaky dielectric systems you have charge, but the charge by itself is very much masked by the fact of its interactions with whatever its environmental matrix in which it exists.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Just assume that, okay, plastic, micro- and nanoplastics there are some magically it was not… the charge is not an issue, like it has no charge. Would it be a good assumption to assume that oh, micro- and nanoplastics is not toxic? If it did not have these dielectric properties, would that be the case? That's not correct. But just, you know.

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

I know, I know why you're framing the question about it. Absolutely right. So this dimensionality is going to drive primarily reaction processes, right? It doesn't matter whether it has charge or no charge. The fact that the particle is in this dimension has the ability to drive an interaction with your biological material, and that causes an inflammatory response. 

Because of that size, it's going to drive, it's going to diffuse through, you know, the lipid bilayer that is there in the cells or it's going to interact with that bilayer of the cells. Once it does that, the inflammatory response triggers your macrophages. So then it's going to be the fibrin… the fibrinogenesis process that's going to start. You're going to create primarily a big you know, fibrinogen material system with these particles. And this causes, this enhanced inflammatory response, which if you now take that and say you've ingested particles, you have no idea that they're there. You're going to trigger essentially a highly inflammatory response in your GI tract, which could lead from as simple things as irritable bowel syndrome to something as complex as inflammatory bowel disease. 

So depending on how long these particles dwell, they interact with the gut mucosa. They essentially cause an encapsulation. They peel off the gut mucosa. And gut mucosa is very healthy because that's what protects the GI tract. And that would come away. And then that would then result in long-term chronic inflammation within the body. So the size is the driver, the charge not as much. And the size and its ability to drive the inflammatory response is the key thing that impacts the human body.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

So in terms of you know, as a solution, okay. I mean, ideally we want to just remove all the micro- and nanoplastics if that was possible. But, you know, obviously it's pretty difficult to remove it from our brains, the oceans and the air. So I was wondering, okay, so size is definitely a big driver as you mentioned. And the second driver is the charge. If we can find a way to somehow neutralize or reduce this charge, would that help in terms of lessening the biological impact? And my second question, is there a way to reduce the charge at scale? So those are my two questions.

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

Absolutely. Figuring out encapsulation strategies for these particles in a scalable manner would be one way of approaching this. The encapsulation strategies to neutralize the effect of that particle on the larger systems, not drive the inflammatory response. So there are what is used in drug, like, you know, how do you use encapsulation strategies for drugs, for drug delivery? You can take those similar approach. So some form of isolation, which is used… And then of course, you can use pegylation, polyethylene glycol, things like that you could use. 

But the thing is, because you do not know the source of where these things are generated from, to do something in a consistent manner has been the challenge. And that still remains a challenge. The second bit of this is can you digest away? So maybe you do the encapsulation, but then you also drive digestion, right? Like enzymatic digestion of these systems. So then you take away, you break it down so that it can never give rise to an inflammatory response. So people have looked at the effect of turmeric or curcumin, other things that can perhaps drive some of these reactions

by using these natural, sustainable, organic ways of doing it.
But none of them have scaled well. And the reason is multiplefold. But the core thing is when you use a reaction to drive this, the consistency or the conditions needed for the reaction to function in the same manner to scale has always been the problem in reaction kinetics. So that requires some level of problem solving.

So the second approach which people are doing is okay, so can I come up with benign materials that I can toss into the ocean, which will degrade, which will essentially encapsulate kind of like a fishing net, pull these particulate material towards it, break it down. And then primarily, you know, it is getting redistributed, right? So basically neutralized. So, these are all the strategies that are currently, you know, all in research, I would say, nothing has worked yet that we know, okay, this is the way to go forward as yet. So that's where I think we are, at least as a field.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Well, so  talking about the future, given your expertise in biosensing and diagnostics, where do you see the greatest opportunities for applying the technologies to  micro- and nanoplastics, in particular in complex biological and environmental systems?

**Shalini Prasad: So biosensors, I think, can work in both outside the body and within the body. So I think, outside the body is probably the easier one to approach it. So we can definitely have ways to test, you know, whether you're talking about ocean water, whether you're talking about a body fluid, so if you test urine samples, blood samples, so on and so forth, and you identify a certain presence of micro- and nanoplastics, then at least you have an assessment. 

So first, what is the baseline: how much exposure does an individual have? So today that is completely uncharacterized and unknown. 

So that is the first opportunity that biosensing systems can do. So it's more like if you think about it as surveillance, figuring it out, how much there is and what is there. 

And of course, we expect people having environmental exposures or who live in certain areas where there's a larger generation of this  micro- and nanoplastics, you'll find them, you know, these biosensing systems would be far more suitable.
Now, the second bit of this is perhaps it is not that significant of an accumulation that it's coming out through a body fluid. But it could be very well there in tissues. So people go through biopsies all the time.

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

People go through colonoscopies all the time. So along with running the tests for whether they're screening for cancer and so on, if they could run a biosensing test for looking at the tissue to understand whether there is MNPs embedded within it. This then gives you a sense of the presence of  the MNP. 

Now the second thing is, what is it that you can do now that you've figured out that it is there? So the most important thing that we could do for the individual is you reduce the inflammatory response. The approach is to reduce inflammatory response, people will give you supplements, you know, so curcumin supplements and so on and so forth. So people get that to reduce that? So but that then becomes in the area of functional medicine, it's really not treating anything.
It's like looking at dysregulation, if you will. Now at an environmental scale, if you start sampling sea water, if you start sampling air, you can essentially establish a certain concentration of specific particles. Then there is what remediation strategies can you adopt? There have been essentially enzymatic remediation strategies that have been designed, so you can deploy it into sea water and so on to clean up that water. So those would be strategies that, you know, you can do directed, because to scale is still not possible.

And it's very expensive, right? So the cost per square foot of cleanup, you know, is in the order of tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. When you're talking about something like that. So because that means you really have to, you know, come up with lower cost and highly efficient strategies. So, that would allow you to do more directed use of resources, very similar during Covid, if you will, like how do you deploy a certain fixed amount of clinical resources, you know, based on a prevalence or occurrence rates, right? 

So taking that same concept, but applying it here based on increased prevalence or occurrence of MNPs, you would apply certain remediation strategies that currently exist. 

So those would be opportunities that would be there with the sensing modalities and  the key thing that the sensing can do today is we are not limited to charged molecules—as I said earlier, we can even do uncharged molecules, I mean, uncharged particles. So I think that is the key driver that sensing platforms can currently serve.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

So it looks like we have good ideas, but now ideas are – it can just stay in the lab or it could just die. So what do we need to do to make these promising technology into the market? I mean, you're an entrepreneur, your experience. So, what do we need to do to get these technologies out to the market?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

So first and foremost, the thing is, what is who, what is the impact and what is the application, right? So we have built a micro-and nanoplastic sensor that can characterize the amount of particles that there are. And for a set of particle types, whether it's polypyrrole, polyvinyl chloride, polymethyl methacrylate, so things of that, so 3 or 4 types of molecules or particles that exist. So in that, the question then becomes is how do you design a screening test? Because this is where the value is. 

So if you build a screening test, a screening test is not just a human screen, but it could be – it's an environmental screen as well, or a food screen as well. So this means solving for the screening test to work in food matrices, water and in body fluids, right? 

So once we have done that, then there is of course the proof of concept of a pilot. So you have to statistically power such a study, and you have to demonstrate the use case with respect to this. 

Now in the food contaminant space, we have done that quite well. We understand how we can characterize it. And you have to validate this. If you have to validate this, then you're using spectroscopy, standard GCMS, LCMS methods, you know, or pyrolization and mass spectrometry that goes with it, and Raman.

So you validate that what you can measure from the screening test is measurable in the gold lab, gold standard. So once you've done that, then there is a platform that is technically validated or scientifically validated. 

Now is the question of application. So this is where partnerships are important. So exactly, having not for profits which are focused in this kind of a space is very critical. That's why I see the value of essentially getting the word out. And then you will have this adopted by you know, these targeted researchers who can then show this works not just in one part of the world, but globally. 

Then, of course, how do you build commercial value to this? Because the cost of the test, depending if you go into the venture world, the cost of the test will just go up because of those investments. So this is where having governments support this, right? Because that will actually reduce the cost of testing, right? 

That's what we did with Covid, right? When you think about all the various Covid screening tests that went out, it was because the various governments across the world invested in actually bringing the cost down.

So this is a global problem, right? Like it's there, the seas go everywhere, air goes everywhere, right? So I think our ability then is to have these tests, which can then the cost of the test, as you scale it into the millions comes down, then leveraging essentially the government support to get it out, right? Because then you're talking about not making profit for what that is. We're thinking of it as a public benefit, right? So that's the way I envision this.
And of course, if you have a lot of competitive technologies having that public benefit, that's how I think we can really move the needle such that, you know, we can, one, monitor. We need to know what we are measuring, first thing, and then we have to measure that. We know what we're measuring is right, because from what we understand is that once we know the measurement, we can think about remediating, eradicating and so on. 

So this is a three-step process. So I am building technologies for the first part of it. But I have to partner with people who can do the downstream things as well. So that's how I see the opportunity of taking what is a lab idea and actually getting it out for public benefit.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Thanks so much for your sharing that. And yeah, just to, you know, like we had a really nice conversation and, you know, just to close for our audience, is there anything that you want our listeners to take away from this conversation? If there's any, if there's one message, what would that be?

Shalini Prasad, Ph.D.

So every idea in the lab you know, it's very important to fail fast to understand whether that idea has merit to go the long distance. So is it just going to be a sprint or will it be a marathon? Because every cool idea in the lab can result in a publication, but a publication doesn't have public impact unless you can take it out and put it in diverse settings. 

So it's good to know and fail fast and find partners because whatever is the cool idea that is in the lab, you have to find the right kind of partners to take it outside and understand its impact. So that's what I'm hoping that every technology I build, I find the right partners to see what the ultimate public good can be. 

So for everyone, it's like, just don't think about making it work in the lab. How can we take it outside? That's what I think about.

John Ahn, Ph.D.

Yeah. Thanks so much. It's a really nice message. And  thanks for bringing all these insights to  our audience. I really appreciate that  you're here and sharing all this knowledge, and you've really given us a deeper understanding of how advancing biosensing technology that can really help us to understand both our own biology and emerging challenges, such as micro- and nanoplastics. So thanks again, Doctor Prasad. And for our listeners, thanks for tuning in and if you'd like to learn more about Doctor Prasad's work or explore topics of  micro- and nanoplastics, you will find out more information on below and the links below. And yeah, and thanks for listening in again and until next time.