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"The relevance of our method is that it could lead to future biosensors that can help treat a wide range of diseases, such as Alzheimer's, by diagnosing it at an early stage. Our research is helping to develop systems that are very sensitive in detecting various substances, which has not been possible before," says V. Pudžaitis.

 

In very simple terms, Surface Enhanced Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy (SEIRAS) is an analytical chemistry method that allows scientists to see, at a very small scale, how molecules 'behave' on the surface of materials. This uses infrared light signals.

 

 

 

SEIRAS can be useful in a wide range of scientific fields, including chemistry, materials science and biochemistry. The method has been around for more than 20 years, but has only been applied to the study of biological membranes and proteins in the last decade. In addition, SEIRAS is one of the few techniques that allows direct observation of changes in water molecules.

 

Vaidas Pudžaitis and his team's research on biomolecular layers and water molecules is fundamental, theoretical. There were two fundamental goals:

 

"We wanted to see if our system can be sensitive to see what we want. But we also investigated SEIRAS itself, its capabilities. This method was used to some extent in Lithuania before, but the research was stopped and the scientists went abroad. So our efforts to re-establish this method and to start using it at FTMC is one of the unstated objectives of the thesis."

 

So, in the future, SEIRAS will bring new research and hopefully, step by step, it will not only generate new knowledge for science, but also bring practical benefits to society.