Development of nanomagnetic sensor array for High Throughput Screening(RMI)

描述(由申请人提供)：在磁数据存储行业的需求的推动下，纳米磁传感器技术的显著进步已经导致磁盘驱动器读取头以每千兆字节约500(80亿个特征)的批发成本寻址横跨50-100 nm的特征。这种磁记录技术的扩展可以作为极其强大的低成本生物传感器的基础，同时打开了生物纳米磁学的广阔和有前途的领域。 这项工作的目标是建立一个健壮的纳米磁性传感器阵列，能够传感50 nm以下的磁性标签，并展示其在高通量生物分子识别和生物传感中的应用。该设备对低丰度的mRNA或蛋白质的灵敏度预计将达到前所未有的高水平，可能是在单分子水平上。仅基于一个或几个探针和目标分子进行测量的能力将通过抑制多个相互作用引起的亲和力效应来提高数据质量，并可以揭示目标群体中质量平均测量无法检测到的真正的单分子异质性。这项研究的基本原理是，这种纳米磁性传感器阵列可以基于快速发展的磁盘数据存储技术，并且可以相对容易地集成到具有极高密度的可单独寻址的传感器的实用HTS传感器阵列中(在每平方毫米1亿个传感器的范围内)。研究团队尤其做好了充分的准备，以利用最近在磁性数据存储和读取技术方面的进展、基因组学和蛋白质组学的爆炸性增长以及休斯顿大学独特的纳米制造能力的协同作用。Dmitri Litvinov(PI)已成功地在商业磁性数据存储系统中实现了许多纳米磁性概念，其中许多概念直接适用于该项目(与希捷技术公司颁发了16项专利)。理查德·威尔逊(合作研究员)为该项目带来了他在基于DMA探针和抗体亲和力的生物检测和分子识别方面的丰富经验。杰克·沃尔夫(合作研究员)是制造超小型器件结构的世界领先者，在集成电路制造方面拥有丰富的经验。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Dramatic advancements in nanomagnetic sensor technology, driven by the needs of the magnetic data storage industry, have led to disk drive read heads addressing features 50-100 nm across, at a wholesale cost of about 500 per Gigabyte (8 billion features). An extension of this magnetic recording technology can be used as the basis of extremely powerful biosensors at low cost, while opening the broad and promising field of bio-nanomagnetics. The objective in the proposed work is to build a robust nanomagnetic sensor array capable of sensing sub-50nm magnetic labels and to demonstrate its application to high throughput biomolecular recognition and bio-sensing. The sensitivity of the device to low-abundance mRNAs or proteins is expected to be unprecedentedly high, potentially at the single-molecule level. The ability to base measurements on only one or a few probe and target molecules will improve the quality of the data by suppressing avidity effects arising from multiple interactions, and can reveal genuine single-molecule heterogeneity in target populations not detectable by mass-averaged measurements. The rationale for this research is that such a nanomagnetic sensor array can be based on rapidly-advancing magnetic disk data storage technology, and can be relatively easily integrated into a practical HTS sensor array with extremely high densities of individually-addressable sensors (in the range of 100 million sensors per square millimeter). The research team is especially well-prepared to capitalize on the synergy of recent advances in magnetic data storage and reading technology, the explosive growth in genomics and proteomics, and unique nanofabrication capabilities at the University of Houston. Dmitri Litvinov (PI) has successfully implemented a number of nanomagnetic concepts in commercial magnetic data storage systems, many of which are directly applicable to this project (16 issued patents with Seagate Technology). Richard Wilson (co-investigator) brings to the project his extensive experience in bio-detection and molecular recognition based on DMA probes and antibody affinity. Jack Wolfe (co-investigator) is the world leader in fabrication of ultra-small device structures, with extensive experience in integrated circuit fabrication.