STTR Phase I: Silicon nanowire arrays for the sensitive detection and identification of lung cancer by a blood sample

这项小型企业技术转移（STTR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是有可能通过更敏感和特异性的癌症生物标志物检测来彻底改变癌症的治疗。仅在2014年，就有166万美国人被诊断出患有癌症，其中585720人死亡。2011年美国癌症的医疗费用总额为887亿美元。一种低成本、低侵入性和更灵敏的检测器将允许早期发现癌症，从而降低治疗成本并提高生存率。更高灵敏度的癌症检测将导致早期发现，实现有针对性的治疗，节省资金和生命，同时提高生活质量。此外，从这项资助中学到的知识可以应用于其他传感器，其中纳米线被功能化以检测材料。这些传感器可能包括支持物联网、污染监测和确保高水质的传感器。这个计划将提升我们使用纳米线作为探测器的知识。纳米线传感器具有很高的表面积体积比。因此，与非纳米结构传感器相比，它们的检测限大大降低，灵敏度也提高了。这种改进对于许多生物测定是必要的。其他人已经制造出纳米线传感器，并显示出高灵敏度。然而，他们用来制造传感器的制造技术既昂贵又缓慢。因此，他们每个传感器只能得到1-10纳米线，制造吞吐量很低。该项目将采用高通量和低成本的工艺，每个传感器将产生数百万纳米线。纳米线将使表面积增加一千倍以上，从而允许更灵敏的检测。该传感器不像竞争对手那样使用水平线，而是使用垂直排列的纳米线阵列。该装置的设计解决了接触大型纳米线阵列的典型挑战，并能够同时测量光学和电信号。拟议的项目将测量与肺癌商业相关的生物标志物。此外，研究人员还将在同一芯片上检测两种生物标志物，从而展示如何使用该技术在同一芯片上检测多种生物标志物。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase I project is the possibility to revolutionize the treatment of cancer through more sensitive and specific cancer biomarker detection. 1.66 million Americans were diagnosed with cancer in 2014 alone, of which 585,720 died. The sum of all health care costs in 2011 for cancer in the US was $88.7 billion. A low cost, less invasive, and more sensitive detector will allow earlier detection of cancer and thus lower the cost of treatment and increase survival rates. Higher sensitivity cancer detection will lead to early detection, enable targeted treatment, and save money and lives while improving quality of life. In addition, the knowledge learned from this grant can be applied to other sensors in which the nanowires are functionalized for detection of materials. These sensors could include sensors to support the Internet of Things, pollution monitoring, and ensuring high water quality.The proposed project will advance our knowledge of using nanowires as detectors. Nanowire sensors have a high surface area-to-volume ratio. Thus their detection limit is dramatically lowered and their sensitivity is increased relative to non-nanostructured sensors. This improvement is necessary for many biological assays. Others have made nanowire sensors and demonstrated high sensitivity. However, the fabrication techniques they use to make their sensors are expensive and slow. Thus, they are only able to get 1-10 nanowires per sensor and manufacturing throughput is low. This project will use a high-throughput and low-cost process, and that results in millions of nanowires per sensor. The nanowires will increase the surface area by over a thousand times thus allowing for more sensitive detection. Instead of using horizontal wires like the competition, the proposed sensor uses arrays of vertically aligned nanowires. The device design solves the typical challenges of contacting large arrays of nanowires and enables the measurement of both optical and electrical signals simultaneously. The proposed project will measure a commercially relevant biomarker for lung cancer. In addition, the investigators will detect two biomarkers on the same chip, thus demonstrating how the technology can be used to test multiple biomarkers on the same chip.