Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 6.2
Nanotechnologies with potential applications in molecular diagnostics
Nanotechnology on a chip
Microfluidic chips for nanolitre volumes: nanochip
Optical readout of nanoparticle labels
Nanoarrays
Protein nanoarrays
Nanoparticle technologies
Gold particles
Nanobarcodes
Magnetic nanoparticles: ferrofluids
Quantum dot technology
Nanoparticle probes
Nanowires
Nanopore technology
Cantilever arrays
DNA nanomachines for molecular diagnostics
Nanosensors
Living spores as nanodetectors
Quartz nanobalance DNA sensor
PEBBLE (Probes Encapsulated by Biologically Localized Embedding) nanosensors
Nanosensor glucose monitor
Nanochip-based single-molecular interaction force assays
Resonance light scattering technology
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Nanosensors
Nanomaterials are exquisitely sensitive chemical and biological sensors. Since their
surface properties are easily modified, nanowires can be decorated with virtually
any potential chemical or biological molecular recognition unit, making the wires
themselves analyte independent. The nanomaterials transduce the chemical binding
event on their surface into a change in conductance of the nanowire in an extremely
sensitive, real time, and quantitative fashion. Boron-doped silicon nanowires
(SiNWs) have been used to create highly sensitive, real-time electrically based sen-
sors for biological and chemical species. Biotin-modified SiNWs were used to
detect streptavidin down to at least a picomolar concentration range. The small size
and capability of these semiconductor nanowires for sensitive, label-free, real-time
detection of a wide range of chemical and biological species could be exploited in
array-based screening and in vivo diagnostics.
The sensors can be electronically gated to respond to the binding of a single
molecule. Prototype sensors have demonstrated detection of nucleic acids, proteins,
and ions. These sensors can operate in the liquid or gas phase, opening up an enormous
variety of downstream applications. The detection schemes use inexpensive low
voltage measurement schemes and detect binding events directly so there is no need
for costly, complicated, and time-consuming labeling chemistries such as fluorescent
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