Sensors are crucial in many daily operations including security, environmental control, human diagnostics and patient monitoring. Screening and online monitoring require reliable and high-throughput sensing. We report on the demonstration of a high-throughput label-free sensor platform utilizing cantilever based sensors. These sensors have often been acclaimed to facilitate highly parallelized operation. Unfortunately, so far no concept has been presented which offers large datasets as well as easy liquid sample handling. We use optics and mechanics from a DVD player to handle liquid samples and to read-out cantilever deflection and resonant frequency. Also, surface roughness is measured. When combined with cantilever deflection the roughness is discovered to hold valuable additional information on specific and unspecific binding events. In a few minutes, 30 liquid samples can be analyzed in parallel, each by 24 cantilever-based sensors. The approach was used to detect the binding of streptavidin and antibodies.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

In this work the use of a high-throughput nanomechanical detection system based on a DVD-ROM optical drive and cantilever sensors is presented for the detection of urokinase plasminogen activator receptor inflammatory biomarker (uPAR). Several large scale studies have linked elevated levels of soluble uPAR (suPAR) to infectious diseases, such as HIV, and certain types of cancer. Using hundreds of cantilevers and a DVD-based platform, cantilever deflection response from antibody-antigen recognition is investigated as a function of suPAR concentration. The goal is to provide a cheap and portable detection platform which can carry valuable prognostic information. In order to optimize the cantilever response the antibody immobilization and unspecific binding are initially characterized using quartz crystal microbalance technology. Also, the choice of antibody is explored in order to generate the largest surface stress on the cantilevers, thus increasing the signal. Using optimized experimental conditions the lowest detectable suPAR concentration is currently around 5 nM. The results reveal promising research strategies for the implementation of specific biochemical assays in a portable and high-throughput microsensor-based detection platform.