A flexible, low-cost biosensor capable of detecting myoglobin – a key cardiac biomarker associated with the early stages of heart attack – has been developed by Mohsina Afrooz, a joint doctoral researcher at Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani-Hyderabad and RMIT University, Australia, according to researchers on Tuesday (February 3, 2026). The graphene-based sensor enables rapid detection of myoglobin, a protein that is released into the bloodstream shortly after heart muscle injury.

Early detection of this biomarker is clinically important, as it allows physicians to identify cardiovascular events much sooner than many traditional diagnostic methods. Lightweight and Affordable Unlike traditional laboratory tests, which are often expensive, time-consuming and dependent on sophisticated infrastructure, the newly developed sensor is lightweight, flexible and affordable – making it suitable for portable and point-of-care testing.

Sanket Goyal, principal investigator, said an Indian patent was filed based on this work, highlighting its translatability. “The India-Australian collaboration is focused on translating advanced sensing technologies into affordable cardiac diagnostics.

We aim to make early heart attack detection not only accurate, but also accessible,” he said. Sayan Das, associate investigator, said, “Early detection saves lives only when it is cost-effective and implementable on a large scale.

” The technology could be particularly impactful in rural hospitals, emergency care settings and low-resource health facilities, where access to advanced diagnostic equipment is limited. “It aims to make heart diagnosis faster, simpler and more accessible to everyone,” said Ms Mohsina Afrooz.

The research is a collaborative effort between the MMNE laboratory at the BITS Pilani-Hyderabad campus and the Center for Opto-Electronic Materials and Sensors (COMAS) at RMIT University, bringing together expertise in advanced materials, biosensing and biomedical engineering. The findings were published in the internationally renowned journal IEEE Sensors Letters.