Karawdeniya Nano-Sensing and Innovations Laboratory
Research
My research is in the cross fields of Chemistry, Physics, and Engineering. I am passionate about developing point-of-care sensors for health and environmental monitoring. My major areas of interest are
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solid-state nanopore single-molecule sensors
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surface-enhanced Raman sensors
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metasurface optical sensors
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surface modification stratagies
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Gas sensing
Work spans solid-state nanopore sensors, metasurface optical sensors, surface-enhanced Raman sensors, and nanowire sensors. My expertise includes sensor platform development, surface chemical and physical modification, nanofabrication, and 3D design/printing. I am interested in the detection of biomarkers in biological fluids and volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath. I introduced solid-state nanopore sensing to the Research School of Physics of the Australian National University. Currently, I lead multiple research projects aimed at developing novel sensing technologies for health care monitoring. I envision extending these sensors as portable and rapid point-of-care sensors for real complex sample monitoring like blood, saliva, sweat, and urine. I am part of the ANU Grand Challenge 'Our health in Our Hands' (OHIOH), a large ANU funded project aimed at bringing multiple disciplines together to develop new technologies for detection and monitoring of health conditions like diabetes. I am also the Program Coordinator of OHIOH Sensors.
Research Funding
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2022: Research Translation and Engagement Primer Fund at ANU for the translation of Nanopore Sensing research.
(67k AUD + 14k AUD support)
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2022: ANU Major Equipment Committee (MEC) grant to establish a Nanopore Sensing facility. (24k AUD)
Selected Presentations
2022 Dec: (invited talk) ‘Dielectric optical metasurfaces for bio and gas sensing’ at the ANFF Workshop in conjunction with AIP Congress, Adelaide
2022 Dec: (invited talk) ‘Solid-state Nanopore: A Nanoelectronic Sensor for Single-Molecule Diagnostics’ at the Australian Institute of Physics Congress and the Conference on Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices, Adelaide
2022 Nov: Founder’s Day Talk representing Dep. of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physics, ANU
2022 Jun : (Guest Speaker) From Nanopore to Nanowire Sensors: Can Our Health be in Our Hands?
Theme seminar on 'Shaping Minds to Break Through Frontiers of Chemical Research' 2022 Annual Sessions of the Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, Sri Lanka
2021 Dec : (invited resource person) Webinar by Molecular Devicees LLC on solid-state nanopore recordings.
2021 Aug : Dielectric metasurfaces as refractive index sensors: Towards high-sensitivity label-free optical sensing
ACS Fall Meeting, Virtual Oral Presentation
2021 Jul : (Award-winning) Surface functionalisation of dielectric metasurfaces for highly selective and sensitive label-
free refractive index sensing
TMOS Student and ECR Conference, Oral Presentation
2020 Nov : Future personalized biomedical sensors: Nanopore single molecule sensors
OHIOH Symposium 2020, ANU, Online Oral presentation
2018 Jun : Sweets to nutrients, we keep track of all: Single molecule sensing and molecular fingerprinting
Gordon Research Seminar and Conference on Bioanalytical Sensors 2018, Newport, RI. Poster presentation
2018 Jun : Nanostructured interfaces for single molecule sensing and molecular fingerprinting
Department of Bioengineering, University of Texas, Dallas, invited by Prasad lab, Oral presentation
2017 Dec : (invited) talk on solid-state nanopore sensors at Mott Corp. Connecticut, USA
2017 Nov : (Award presentation) A sweet promise from solid-state nanopores: polysaccharide-sugar analysis challenge Eastern Analytical Symposium 2017, Princeton, NJ, Poster presentation
2015 Dec : (Invited) Custom fabrication of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopic (SERS) substrates from silicon nitride to paper by electroless gold plating…and a taste of single molecule sensing
Program for “popular talks”, Institute of Chemistry Ceylon, Sri Lanka. Oral presentation
2015 Nov : (Invited) Custom fabrication of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopic (SERS) substrates by electroless gold plating on a variety of substrate materials for the detection of trace levels of organic pollutants
NSF EPSCoR National Meeting, New Hampshire. Poster presentation
2015 Sep : (Award-winning) Electroless gold plating as an adaptable tool to fabricate custom surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic (SERS) substrates
FACSS SciX international conference, RI. Poster presentation
Email: buddini.karawdeniya@anu.edu.au
Address: 60, Mills Road, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia