STTR PHASE I: Nano-Needle DNA Biosensor For Iin-Situ Direct Detection

这个STTR第一阶段的研究提案将证明纳米针（纳米针）探针生物传感器的可行性，分析低丰度核酸没有目标/信号放大。在拟议的工作中的独特之处在于在介电电泳和毛细管作用的组合使用，以制造一个高纵横比的纳米针制成的混合纳米材料和操作的纳米针作为生物传感器，实现高灵敏度，通过尺寸排他的样品浓度。该公司已经成功地在非特异性采样/分析嵌入剂处理的DNA掺入缓冲液或细胞溶液中的定量方式。该成果的灵敏度约为10 pg/mL（0.3fM），与天然存在的DNA物质的浓度相当，足以筛选/检测血液中的循环DNA（低于50 ng/mL）。 该方法将为高通量制备高深宽比纳米针结构和应用于生物传感平台铺平道路。所提出的纳米针生物传感器装置将使简单，快速，但灵敏的检测没有目标/信号放大和最小化的操作方面的物理尺寸，相应的能量消耗，样品大小，和样品制备时间作为现场部署的设备。该生物传感器旨在使用最低限度处理或原始样品进行即时检测。最终，该设备将适用于核酸检测（NAT），以快速筛查疾病（例如癌症），这是通过最低限度处理的样本实现的。

This STTR Phase I research proposal will demonstrate the feasibility of a nanoscale needle (nano-needle) probe biosensor assaying low-abundance nucleic acids without target-/signal amplification. The unique point in the proposed work lies in the combined use of dielectrophoresis and capillary action to fabricate a high-aspect ratio nano-needle made of a hybrid nanomaterial and to operate the nano-needle as a biosensor, achieving high sensitivity through size-exclusive sample concentration. The company has already succeeded in nonspecifically sampling/assaying intercalator-treated lambda-DNA spiked into a buffer or cell solution in a quantitative manner. The sensitivity of this achievement was around 10pg/mL (0.3fM) which is comparable to the concentration of naturally occurring DNA species and sufficient for screening/detection of circulating DNA in blood (sub-50ng/mL). The method will pave the way to high throughput fabrication of high aspect ratio nano-needle structures and the application to the biosensing platform. The proposed nano-needle biosensor device will enable simple, rapid, yet sensitive detection without target-/signal amplification and minimize the operation in terms of the physical size, corresponding energy consumption, sample size, and sample preparation time as a field-deployable device. The biosensor is aimed for point-of-care-testing using minimally treated or raw samples. Eventually, the device will be applicable to nucleic acid testing (NAT) for rapid screening of diseases (e.g. cancer), which is enabled through minimally treated samples.