Ultrathin Gold Nanowire Biosensors

睾丸癌是20岁至39岁男性中最常见的癌症。早期发现癌症对患者有足够的好处，因为治疗不那么复杂，而且可以在不显著影响生育能力的情况下进行。本研究的研究将为非侵入性早期检测提供一种新的途径。其原理是使用超细的金丝(大约比人的头发小10万倍)来电感测少量特定生物标记蛋白(HCG)的存在。该传感器的工作原理是简单地通过超薄的金纳米线流动电流。在将人绒毛膜促性腺激素蛋白连接到特定生物功能的纳米线上后，我们将能够检测到流经纳米线的电流的变化。这将是第一次以这种方式使用超细金属丝来检测蛋白质。一旦证实成功，我们将研究这些纳米线感知其他重要生物标记蛋白的能力。在这项研究的过程中，我将对化学合成的超薄金纳米线进行四探针传输测量，以确定纳米尺寸对电阻率的影响。除了实验之外，我们还将建立计算模型，为我们提供对超薄NWS传感能力的详细基础了解。除了这项研究计划，我们计划将NWS的生物传感能力扩展到检测其他癌症和疾病。

Testicular cancer is the most common cancer found in males aged between 20 and 39 years. Early detection of the cancer has sufficient benefits to the patient because the treatment is less complicated and can be performed without having a significant effect on fertility. The research in this study will provide a new way of achieving early detection in a non-invasive manner. The principle is to use ultrathin gold wires (approximately one hundred thousand times smaller than a human hair) to electrically sense the presence of small quantities of specific biomarker proteins (HCG). The sensor works by simply flowing a current through the ultrathin gold nanowires. After the attachment of the HCG protein onto the specifically biofunctionalised nanowire, we will be able to detect a change in the electrical current flowing through the wire. This will be the first time ultrathin metal wires have been used in this manner to detect proteins. Once proven successful we will study the ability of these nanowires to sense other important biomarker proteins. During the course of this research I will be performing four-probe transport measurements on chemically synthesized ultrathin gold nanowires to determine the effect the nanoscale dimensions have on the resistivity. In addition to the experiments, we will be generating computation models to provide us with a detailed fundamental understanding of the sensing capability of ultrathin NWs. Beyond this research program, we plan to extend the biosensing capabilities of the NWs to detect other cancers and diseases.