Funded Projects

Cannabis/marijuana is the most commonly-used regulated drug across developed countries. Recent changes in its legal status have led to: 1) more positive attitudes that it is less harmful; 2) greater access to cannabis, especially in states and countries that provide legal access to recreational cannabis; and, 3) increases in the prevalence of cannabis use. These effects may be particularly influential in the behavior of young adults (aged 18 to 30 years), who tend to show the highest prevalence of cannabis use and are most at risk for experiencing cannabis-related problems. The challenge for those who seek to monitor the potentially harmful effects of using cannabis is the lack of a noninvasive, but accurate, method for measuring the acute levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the active chemical of cannabis/marijuana). Our team has developed a highly sensitive nanophotonic chip to detect drugs (e.g. cocaine), that has received extensive interests from the public media (e.g. BBC and Mirror) and industry partners because, in part, the real world applications will be portable and require minimal technical expertise to use. In this seed project, we propose to develop an application of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy to provide a reliable quantitative measure for sensing cannabis use. Specifically, we will develop and optimize the nanophotonic chip to enhance the Raman signals of chemical molecules bound to its surface and develop a particular surface treatment to capture THC and related chemicals. Strategies to realize quantitative sensing will require the highly uniform response of these nanostructures. Biological samples will be collected and tested on the proposed nano-chip. Finally, we will test its performance using portable Raman spectroscopy by working with our industry partners to explore the commercial potential of this tool in its broader field applications which include research, law enforcement, health care, and occupational fitness.