I-Corps: A Low-Cost, Rapid, Sensitive, PCR-Free Pathogen Diagnostics Platform

便携式和多靶点DNA/RNA诊断需要快速，现场可用，操作简单，可再生和经济的生物传感器系统。本文介绍的纳米膜技术是基于纳米孔膜中新发现的电动力学现象的集成，有望将传统的无标签电化学和电容/电导生物传感器扩展到现场核酸检测所需的鲁棒性、灵敏度、选择性和分析速度。通过科学地仔细研究详细的非平衡电动力学现象，并利用最新的纳米/微加工技术，将这些新的物理现象优化并整合到适合现场应用的手持式DNA/RNA设备的自动化膜传感平台中。拟议的工作将主要涉及微型原型的开发，这些原型可以对生物研究产生重大影响，更商业化的是，对生物技术工业部门产生重大影响。一种可行的便携式和无标签的细菌DNA/RNA检测平台有可能刺激生物传感器行业的技术进步，因为它可以通过消除耗时的核酸扩增步骤和昂贵/笨重/人员密集的荧光传感光学检测器来改变医疗，环境和农业应用的病原体检测方法。因此，该项目可以影响纳米科学和纳米生物技术。该平台可灵活地测试与健康和环境安全有关的各种致病目标，可大大增加目标组合并扩大该技术的影响。

Portable and multi-target DNA/RNA diagnostics requires a rapid, field-usable, simple to operate, regenerable and economical biosensor system. The nanomembrane technology presented here is based upon the integration of newly discovered electrokinetic phenomena in nanoporous membranes that promise to extend traditional label-free electrochemical and capacitance/conductance biosensors to the requisite robustness, sensitivity, selectivity and assay speed for on-field nucleic acid detection. The proposed work will optimize and integrate these new physical phenomena into an automated membrane sensing platform for hand-held DNA/RNA devices suitable for field applications by scientifically scrutinizing the detailed non-equilibrium electrokinetic phenomena and by exploiting the latest nano/microfabrication technologies. The proposed work will heavily involve development of miniature prototypes that can have a significant impact on biological research and, more commercially, the biotechnology industry sector. A viable portable and label-free DNA/RNA detection platform for bacterial detection has the potential to spur a technological advance in the biosensor industry, as it could transform pathogen detection methodology for medical, environmental, and agricultural applications by eliminating the time-consuming nucleic acid amplification step and the costly/bulky/personnel-intensive optical detectors of fluorescent sensing. The project can hence impact both nanoscience and nano biotechnology. The flexibility of the platform to test various pathogenic targets related to health and environmental safety could vastly increase the target portfolio and widen the impact of the technology.