Development and Validation of Hybrid Brillouin-Raman Spectroscopy for Non-invasive Assessment of Mechano-chemical Properties of Urine Proteins as Biomarkers of Kidney Diseases

The proteinuria is widely recognized as a marker of kidney disease severity, as well as the predictor of renal function decline, cardiovascular outcomes, and all-cause mortality. However, the severity of kidney disease progression and these outcomes differs among patients with various amount of proteinuria. The potential mechanism underlining this disparity may be relevant to the quality and quantity of filtered proteins, especially their mechano-chemical properties such as physical viscosity and stiffness, amino-acid sequence, and molecular weight (low, middle and high molecular weight proteins). The goal of the current project is to develop and validate combined Brillouin & Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) Spectroscopy technique for simultaneous non-contact assessment of visco-elastic and chemical properties of urine proteins as biomarkers of kidney disease. Systematic studies of these properties of proteins in urine samples to be taken from diseased and healthy subjects will be cross-validated by Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LCMS). The project ultimately aims for the development of an optical spectroscopic sensor for rapid, non-contact monitoring of urine samples from patients in clinical settings.