New generation of biosensors using nanopore extended Field Effect Transistors (NexFET)

生物传感器是现代生命科学中不可或缺的重要组成部分，生物传感器技术的新发展越来越多地应用于过程工业、安全、环境和生物防御应用市场。我们寻求解决当前诊断的局限性，我们建议开发一种全新的纳米技术，用于神经递质的高通量电子识别。虽然在开发生物传感的纳米技术方法方面已经有了一些进展，但这些还没有取得进展，而且在开发负担得起的、集成的、快速的、能够进行多路检测和监测的芯片实验室生物传感器方面仍然存在未满足的需求，而且至关重要的是，能够检测生物液体中痕量分析物的高选择性。这项建议直接解决了这些问题。这将通过设计一种新型的纳米级场效应晶体管传感器来实现，这种传感器被称为NexFET（纳米孔扩展场效应晶体管），它结合了纳米孔单分子传感器、场效应晶体管和识别化学的优点。EPSRC的战略表明，它希望鼓励新的思维方式，开发新的工具，并在英国工业和其他政府部门（如NHS）内刺激生物科学、医学和环境科学的进一步研究。许多重要的生物学和临床问题都可以用这种生物传感器来解决。这些研究包括细胞生长、分化、迁移、病毒进入、免疫系统功能和与衰老、心肌病、神经变性和癌症有关的信号转导。这些过程大多涉及细胞及其环境中的生物相关分子。因此，能够以高灵敏度和准确度实时测量这些生物分子的纳米传感器的产生具有潜在的巨大价值。该提案有助于EPSRC的分析科学、诊断和医疗保健技术领域，特别是在物理和生物科学的新工具、方法和技术开发的背景下。它将为一种新颖、易于使用、强大和廉价的传感器技术提供基础，用于体外检测生物液体中的神经递质和蛋白质。

Biosensors are an integral and increasingly important part of modern life sciences and new developments in biosensor technologies are increasingly seeing their application in the process industry, security, environmental and biodefense application markets. We seek to address the limitations of current diagnostics and we propose the development of a radical new nanotechnology for high throughput electronic recognition of neurotransmitters. While there are some moves to develop nanotechnology approaches to biosensing, these have yet to make a mark and there remains an unmet need in the development of lab-on-chip biosensors that are affordable, integrated, fast, capable of multiplexed detection and monitoring, and crucially, highly selective which can detect trace levels of analyte in biological fluids. This proposal directly addresses these issues. This will be achieved by designing a new class of nanoscale FET sensors dubbed NexFET (nanopore extended Field Effect Transistor) that combine the advantages of nanopore single molecule sensors, FET's and recognition chemistry. EPSRC's strategy states that it wishes to encourage new ways of thinking, develop new tools and stimulate further investigation in bioscience, medicine and environmental sciences within UK industry and other parts of government such as the NHS. A wide array of important biological and clinical problems exist that could be addressed with such bionanosensors. These include the study of cell growth, differentiation, migration, viral entry, immune system function and signal transduction involved in aging, cardiomyopathy, neurodegeneration, and cancer. Most of these processes involve biologically relevant molecules in cells and their environments. Thus the generation of nanosensors to measure these biological molecules in real time with high sensitivity and accuracy is potentially extremely valuable. The proposal contributes towards the EPSRC areas of Analytical Science, Diagnostics and Healthcare Technologies, and especially in the context of development of novel tools, methods, and technologies in the physical and biological sciences. It will provide the basis for a novel, easy to use, robust and inexpensive sensor technology, for the detection of neurotransmitters and proteins in-vitro in biological fluids.