Writing with DNA and Protein Using a Nanopipet for Controlled Delivery

Abstract

We present a new, general method for the controlled deposition of biological molecules on surfaces, based on a nanopipet operating in ionic solution. The potential applied to the pipet tip controls the flux of biological molecules from the pipet, allowing fine control of the delivery rate. We used the ion current to control the distance of the pipet from the surface of a glass slide and deposited the fluorescently labeled DNA or protein G at a defined location onto the surface. Features of 830 nm size were obtained by depositing the biotinylated DNA onto a streptavidin surface; 1.3 mum size spots were obtained by depositing protein G onto a positively charged glass surface.

Nanodispenser for attoliter volume deposition using atomic force microscopy probes modified by focused-ion-beam milling

“…This approach to rapid prototyping bypasses many of the limitations associated with photoresist-based lithography. The shadow mask technique combined with an atomic force microscope (AFM) probe allows one to deposit sub-100 nm metallic nanowires, 1 micropipettes handled with an SPM are used to deliver liquid, 2,3 gas 4 or biomolecules, 5 and inked AFM tips can serve as pens on a nanometric scale. 6,7 To circumvent the serial manner of writing, the production of multiple cantilever probes permits parallelization of the process.…”

Bio-Microarray Fabrication Techniques—A Review

“…Another non-contact printing technique similar to ESD is a Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) technique 11,20,22 based on scanning ion conductance microscopy. This technique allows for depositing nano-spots by applying an electrical field pulse between the substrate and a nano-pipette that is filled with sample ( Figure 23).…”

The Evolution of Dip‐Pen Nanolithography.

“…At present, dozens of laboratories around the world have begun to study, develop, or use DPN as a tool in their own research. [8,10,11,13,15,16,[19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] The topics these workers have studied range from the fundamentals of tip-substrate ink transport, [21][22][23]33] to the direct deposition of metallic structures and development of electrochemical DPN, [8,15] to the deposition of biomolecules [12,30,34] and the effects of DPN on the organization of biopolymers. [11] …”

“…[97] In addition to microfluidic ink wells into which tips can be "dipped," integrating the microfluidics directly into the tips themselves offers another attractive possibility for MEMs engineers interested in DPN. In an extension of the DPN technique that some have likened to a "fountain pen", [98] both micro-and nanopipettes have been used as scanning-probe tips with hollow cores through which inks ranging from chemical etchants [98] to photoresist [99] and even biomolecules, [26,100] can be pumped directly to a surface for sitespecific lithography. Although nanopipette-DPN work is presently restricted by the hand-fabrication of pulled glass capillaries, Espinosa and co-workers are lifting this limitation by using advances in microfabrication technology to generate massively parallel fountain-pen arrays.…”