Nanocalorimeters for biomolecular analysis and cell metabolism monitoring

Abstract

Nanocalorimeters, or microfabricated calorimeters, provide a promising way to characterize the thermal process of biological processes, such as biomolecule interactions and cellular metabolic activities. They enabled miniaturized heat measurement onto a chip device with potential benefits including low sample consumption, low cost, portability, and high throughput. Over the past few decades, researchers have tried to improve nanocalorimeters' performance, in terms of sensitivity, accuracy, and detection resolution, by exploring different sensing methods, thermal insulation techniques, and liquid handling methods. The enhanced devices resulted in new applications in recent years, and here we have summarized the performance parameters and applications based on categories. Finally, we have listed the current technical difficulties in nanocalorimeter research and hope for future solutions to overcome them.

The Requirement of Genetic Diagnostic Technologies for Environmental Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance

“…For example, surface plasmon resonance, calorimetry, quartz crystal microbalance measurements, biolayer interferometry, reflectometric interference spectroscopy [ 53 ], or electrochemistry [ 54 , 55 ]. These methods do not rely on labile chemicals or reagents and all have been miniaturized and are regarded as being low cost options for diagnostic devices [ 53 , 56 , 57 , 58 ]. Most have been developed for real-time or close to real-time monitoring but they have not been trialed for surveillance of environmental DNA.…”

Toward Quantitative Bio-sensing with Nitrogen–Vacancy Center in Diamond

“…Temperature measurements in biological systems are commonly carried out from a macroperspective, which does not provide information about local temperature changes, and, consequently, what is the temperature effect on cellular activities and functions. Several works, done by nonluminescent thermometry methods, including thermocouple − and microcantilever, − have revealed temperature changes of few degrees Celsius measurable in a single living cell. However, those methods are normally accompanied by unavoidable perturbance of the cells ( e.g.…”

μFlowCal – High‐Resolution Differential Flow Microcalorimeter for the Measurement of Heats of Mixing

“…Independently of the concept used in the design of the calorimeter, it plays an important role in the sensitivity and resolution of the calorimeter. Due to the different design of the calorimeters, they present different sensitivity (some can measure in the nanoW power region [12] ) and response times (up to fractions of seconds [12] ). Lerchner and collaborators have summarized and discussed the main rules for the design of these new chip calorimeter devices [15] .…”

“…[10] This technology makes it possible to do chemistry in a more sustainable way, by reducing energy and materials consumption through efficient mass and heat transfer and a high process selectivity. The advances in this technology allowed the miniaturization of the conventional calorimeters for the building of micro [11] or even nano [12] calorimetric systems. Both from an academic and industrial perspective, the development of miniaturized calorimetric apparatus integrating micromixers/ microreactors can provide new possibilities such as parallel operation, small dimensions, small amount of sample, portability, etc.…”

“…The review articles of Wang et al, [12] Lee et al, [11a] Khaw et al [11b] and Feng et al . [11c] summarize well the evolution and state-of-art of the main design configurations used in these miniaturized calorimeters, while discussing critical aspects as the thermostatization, the reaction/mixing chamber, the sensi-tivity, etc.…”