Collaborative Research: Waveguide-Integrated Graphene Nano-tweezERs (WIGNER) for rapid sorting and analysis of nanovesicles and viruses

非技术性描述：该项目旨在设计和展示一个传感平台，该平台结合了电捕获和光电路集成的最新进展，用于生物纳米颗粒的快速集中，分选和分析。从患者的液体样品中提取的病毒和细胞片段（例如，尿液、血液等）包含丰富的诊断信息，可用于检测和治疗多种疾病。然而，从样品中许多其他颗粒的混合物中检测特定的目标生物颗粒使诊断复杂化。目前用于分离目标生物颗粒的方法通常需要耗时的过程，例如多个过滤或离心阶段，然后进行扩增。因此，基于生物颗粒的尺寸和物理性质快速分类、捕获和检测生物颗粒的主动生物传感器将对生物传感和医学诊断领域产生重大影响。大规模生产这种传感器可以降低复杂性，成本和患者接受医疗诊断测试的延迟。该项目还为在STEM领域代表性不足的本科生和高中生提供指导和推广机会。技术描述：该项目将开发一种生物传感器，该生物传感器可以通过将可见光波导的高度限制的倏逝场激发与使用原子级尖锐石墨烯电极的介电泳（DEP）捕获相结合，对细胞外囊泡（EV）和病毒样本进行分类、捕获和检测。为了展示这种波导集成石墨烯纳米镊子（或“WIGNER”）平台，该团队将：1）将联合收割机透明DEP石墨烯电极和氮化硅光子波导相结合; 2）集成微流体技术，用于有效的水性纳米囊泡分选和捕获; 3）使用线成像光学散射，荧光和拉曼光谱法快速检测和分析单个纳米囊泡和病毒。该项目旨在实现对纳米囊泡和病毒的生理选择性多模式分析，速度比传统扫描方法快约100倍（即，共焦荧光和拉曼光谱）。项目成果将与生命科学的新兴应用直接相关（例如，阐明细胞信号传导途径），纳米医学（例如，对mRNA疫苗中使用的脂膜的动态抗体结合应答），和疾病诊断（例如，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Nontechnical description: This project aims to design and demonstrate a sensing platform which incorporates recent advances in both electrical trapping and integration of optical circuits for rapid concentrating, sorting, and analysis of biological nanoparticles. Viruses and cellular fragments extracted from liquid samples of a patient (e.g., urine, blood, etc.) contain abundant diagnostic information which can be used to detect and treat many diseases. However, detecting a specific target bioparticle from a mixture of many other particles in the sample complicates diagnostics. Current methods for isolating the targe bioparticles often require time-consuming processes such as multiple filtering or centrifugation stages, followed by amplification. Therefore, an active biosensor which rapidly sorts, traps, and detects bioparticles based on their size and physical properties would have significant impact on the field of biosensing and medical diagnostics. Mass producing such sensors could reduce the complexity, cost, and delay for patients undergoing medical diagnostic tests. This project also provides mentoring and outreach opportunities for undergraduate and high school students who are underrepresented in STEM fields.Technical description: This project will develop a biosensor which can sort, trap, and detect extracellular vesicles (EVs) and viral specimens by combining highly confined evanescent field excitation from visible waveguides with dielectrophoretic (DEP) trapping using atomically sharp graphene electrodes. To demonstrate this Waveguide-Integrated Graphene Nano-tweezERs (or “WIGNER”) platform, the team will: 1) combine transparent DEP graphene electrodes and silicon nitride photonic waveguides; 2) integrate microfluidics for efficient aqueous nanovesicle sorting and trapping; and 3) demonstrate rapid detection and analysis of single nanovesicles and viruses using line-imaging optical scattering, fluorescence, and Raman spectroscopy. The project aims to enable physiologically selective, multimodal analysis of nanovesicles and viruses at speeds ~100× faster than conventional scanning methods (i.e., confocal fluorescence and Raman spectroscopy). Project outcomes will have immediate relevance for emerging applications in life sciences (e.g., elucidating cell signaling pathways), nanomedicine (e.g., dynamic antibody binding response to lipid membranes used in mRNA vaccines), and disease diagnosis (e.g., amplification-free viral detection).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.