Nanostructured surfaces for enhanced protein detection toward clinical diagnostics

Design of a high sensitive non-faradaic impedimetric sensor

“…The technique has the inherent potential for label-free detection, which is of special interest in bioanalysis since this circumvents the need to modify biomolecules with fluorescence dyes, enzymes, redox or radioactive labels. Several examples of its application to the detection of DNA, antigens or antibodies have been demonstrated [1][2][3] . However, an amplification step is often necessary to achieve a defined response with very low analyte concentrations.…”

Novel Nanomonitor ultra-sensitive detection of troponin T

“…Measurements made with the Nanomonitor are based upon changes in impedance that occur at the electrical double layer when an antigen binds to its antibody, and have been described in detail previously [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Briefly, a nanoporous nylon membrane is integrated onto a platform composed of a gold modified branched concentric circle electrode design.…”

“…The Nanomonitor turns the impedance signal into a concentration for the target biomarker using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Prior work by our group showed that leveraging the phenomenon of macromolecular crowding can be utilized to design ultra-sensitive protein biosensors [8][9][10][11][12][13]. Macromolecular crowding theory postulates that the crowded environment in cells enhances protein interactions that are significantly different compared with protein interactions occurring in buffered solutions used in most laboratory-based measurement of proteins.…”

Enhancement of antigen–antibody kinetics on nanotextured silicon surfaces in mixed non-flow systems

“…Nanotexturing, a technique utilized to increase the specific surface area, has been studied in various applications and devices such as solar cells [1][2][3][4], biomaterial implants [5,6], paper industries [7], MEMS and other micro devices [8] and sensors [9,10]. For sensor applications, nanotexturing has been used to enhance the number densities of biomolecules.…”

“…For sensor applications, nanotexturing has been used to enhance the number densities of biomolecules. Representative examples include enhanced protein adsorption on nanotextured PDMS surfaces used to fabricate microfluidic systems and biochips [11], micro and nanotextured polystyrene having increased efficiencies for electronic immunosensors [10], larger surface area on nanostructured porous silicon utilized for bacterial cell capture [12][13][14], DNA and protein detection [15,16] and enzyme-based activities [17]. Also, nanotexturing has been demonstrated to enhance the orientation of biomolecules on sensor surfaces [18].…”