Newly engineered ZnO nanoplatforms and their initial evaluation in ultrasensitive biomedical marker detection

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0729541HahmThe objective of the project is to utilize recent advances in nanomaterials to develop improved tools for the detection and quantification of medically relevant protein markers. The research integrates engineering principles of the optical enhancement effect of zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) in detecting early disease biomarkers. The intellectual merit of the proposed research lies in both fundamental and engineering aspects. The project presents a scheme where a single-step growth will produce ZnO NRs of a uniform size, shape, density, and orientation that are assembled in an array format, directly after synthesis. The project will also ascertain the exact mechanism dictating the important phenomenon of ZnO NR-mediated fluorescence enhancement. The research could then demonstrate that the easily fabricated ZnO NRs will enable high sensitivity protein detection without the need for chemical/enzymatic amplification or specialized instrumentation. These ZnO NR-based protein sensors could have superior detection capabilities than the currently available techniques. The project results could lead to the development of sensitive, low-cost assays of biomedically relevant markers of human disease even at ultratrace levels. The combined growth and assembly process proposed in this research will be applied straightforwardly and conveniently to produce ZnO nanosensor arrays that are compatible with conventional automatic sample handlers and fluorescence readers. This advantage can promote the widespread applications of these nanoplatforms in basic biology, clinical testing, and biomedical research. This versatile platform could not only allow early detection of various disease biomarkers but also facilitate detection of environmental hazards and chemical and biological threats.The proposed research does have a potential to advance discovery and understanding fluorescence detection capability of ZnO nanorods. The project includes the students at graduate and undergraduate levels in both chemical and biomedical engineering.