Motorized Nanolabs: Dually High-Speed and Ultrasensitive Bioanalysis

本研究的目的是探索一种由电动微/纳米传感器组成的生化分析系统的新概念，该系统具有前所未有的高灵敏度和生物标志物的检测速度，与疾病诊断和早期干预相关。尽管在发展具有极高灵敏度的纳米传感器用于生物分析方面已经做出了重大努力，但对流体样品中分子的低效率检测仍然是一个巨大的挑战。挑战来自于分子在超低浓度下对纳米传感器的低附着机会。这一固有问题极大地阻碍了纳米传感器在疾病早期诊断中的实际应用。在这项工作中，提出了一种先进的驱动方法来实现生物分析系统，即机器人NanoLab，该系统将利用超灵敏纳米传感器阵列来积极提高分子的捕获速度。这一高速灵敏的生物分析系统将应用于胰腺癌的多个生物标志物的检测，以便进行早期诊断。拟议的研究将与各种教育和外联工作结合起来。将组织一次研讨会，聚集学术界和工业界的主要研究人员，以促进关于纳米传感器的讨论。结果将在各次会议上公布。设备模块的演示将在特定的活动中进行，包括探索德克萨斯大学(德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校)和女生节，以激发公众对新技术突破的兴趣和认识。近年来，研究人员开发了具有单分子水平灵敏度的纳米传感器。然而，这些能够进行超灵敏检测的设备的纳米级特征导致检测速度低，这是因为分子被小感测区域捕获的概率很低。复杂的制造和集成方案进一步加剧了这些困难。为了克服这些问题，本研究的目的是探索一种新的概念-机动纳米实验室，以提供前所未有的超灵敏、运动控制和健壮性，用于生物检测和分析。纳米实验室的机动化将由拉曼微/纳米传感器阵列实现，检测方案具有高度的重复性。该系统将被智能而高效地控制，以实现对癌症生物标志物的高速检测。低浓度生物标志物的检测时间可以大大减少，例如从几小时减少到几分钟。如果成功，这项研究可能会激励一类创新的生物传感器用于早期癌症检测和干预。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The objective of this research is to investigate a new concept of a biochemical analysis system made of motorized micro/nanosensors that offers unprecedented high sensitivity and detection speed of biomarkers, relevant to disease diagnosis and early intervention. Although significant efforts have been made in advancing nanosensors with extremely high sensitivity for bioanalysis, the low efficiency of the detection of molecules in fluidic samples remains a grand unmet challenge. The challenge arises from low attachment opportunities of molecules to a nanosensor at ultralow concentrations. This intrinsic problem has greatly hindered the practical applications of nanosensors in early disease diagnosis. In this work, an advanced actuation approach is proposed to realize a bioanalysis system, namely robotic nanolab, which will actively enhance the capture speed of molecules by utilizing arrays of ultrasensitive nanosensors. The high speed and sensitive bioanalysis system will be applied for the detection of multiple biomarkers of pancreas cancers for early-stage diagnosis. The proposed research will be combined with various educational and outreach efforts. A workshop will be organized that will gather leading researchers from both academia and industry to facilitate a discussion on nanosensors. Results will be disseminated in conferences. Demonstrations of device module will be conducted in specific events, including explore-UT (University of Texas at Austin) and Girl's Day, to inspire the public interest and awareness of new technological breakthroughs.In recent years, researchers have developed nanoscale sensors with sensitivity at the single-molecule level. However, the nanoscale features of these devices that enable ultrasensitive detection undesirably results in low detection speed, due to the low probability of molecules captured by small sensing areas. The difficulties are further compounded by the complex fabrication and integration schemes. To overcome these issues, the objective of this research is to investigate a new concept of motorized nanolab to offer unprecedented ultrasensitivity, motion control, and robustness for biodetection and analysis. The motorized nanolab will be realized by arrays of Raman micro/nanosensors with highly reproducible detection scheme. The system will be controlled intelligently and efficiently for high-speed detection of cancer biomarkers. The detection time of biomarkers at low concentrations could be substantially reduced, e.g. from hours to minutes. If successful, this research could inspire an innovative class of biosensors for early cancer detection and intervention.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.