Transcript
In a world grappling with a multitude of health threats, the need for quick, reliable, and easy to-use home diagnostic tests has never been greater. Now, new research published in the journal Nanoscale shows it’s possible to develop and build microchips that can identify multiple diseases from a single cough or air sample and can be produced at scale. This research opens new horizons in the field of biosensing.
Imagine a future where these tests can be done anywhere, by anyone, using a device as small and portable as your smart watch. Doing so will require microchips capable of detecting miniscule concentrations of viruses or bacteria in the air. The innovative technology demonstrated by the researchers at NYU uses field-effect transistors (or FETs) acting as miniature electronic sensors which directly detect biological markers and convert them into digital signals. This offers an alternative to traditional col or-based chemical diagnostic tests like home pregnancy tests. This advanced approach enables faster results, testing for multiple diseases simultaneously, and immediate data transmission to healthcare providers.
Field-effect transistors, a staple of modern electronics, are emerging as powerful tools in the quest for diagnostic instruments. These tiny devices can be adapted to function as biosensors, detecting specific pathogens or biomarkers in real time, without the need for chemical labels or lengthy lab procedures. By converting biological interactions into measurable electrical signals, FET-based biosensors offer a rapid and versatile platform for diagnostics.
Recent advancements have pushed the detection capabilities of FET biosensors to incredibly small levels by incorporating nanoscale materials such as nanowires, indium oxide, and graphene. Yet, despite their potential, FET-based sensors still face a significant challenge: they struggle to detect multiple pathogens or biomarkers simultaneously on the same chip. Current methods for customizing these sensors lack the precision and scalability required for more complex diagnostic tasks.
To address this, the NYU researchers are e ploring new ways to modify FET surfaces, al lowing each transistor on a chip to be tailored to detect a different biomarker. This would enable parallel detection of multiple pathogens. That’s where thermal scanning probe lithography (or tSPL) comes in. tSPL is a break through technology that may hold the key to overcoming these barriers. This technique allows for the precise chemical patterning of a polymer-coated chip, enabling the functionalization of individual FETs with different bioreceptors, such as antibodies or aptamers, at resolutions as fine as 20 nanometers.
This is on par with the tiny size of transistors in today’s advanced semiconductor chips. By allowing for highly selective modification of each transistor, this method opens the door to the development of FET-based sensors that can detect a wide variety of pathogens on a single chip, with unparalleled sensitivity. In tests, FET sensors functionalized using tSPL have shown remarkable performance, detecting COVID19 spike proteins with as little as 10 live virus particles per milliliter, while effectively distinguishing between different types of viruses, including influenza A.
The ability to reliably detect such minute quantities of pathogens with high specificity is a critical step toward creating portable diagnostic devices that could one day be used in a variety of settings, from hospitals to homes. As semiconductor manufacturing continues to advance, integrating billions of nanoscale FETs onto microchips, the potential for using these chips in biosensing applications is becoming increasingly feasible.
A universal, scalable method for functionalizing FET sur faces at nanoscale precision would enable the creation of sophisticated diagnostic tools, capable of detecting multiple diseases in real time, with the kind of speed and accuracy that could transform modern medicine.
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