Development of carbon nanotube biosensors and investigation of sensing mechanism

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Biosensors are powerful tools providing selective identification of pathogens (e.g., bacteria, virus) and toxic chemicals in industrial products, environmental samples (e.g., air, soil, water), and clinical specimens. Novel biosensors with higher sensitivity, better specificity, and larger-scale multiplicity will play an important role in advancing analysis technologies for environmental monitoring, early cancer diagnostics, and basic research towards improved understanding of untreatable diseases. The proposed project will aim at developing a new generation of biosensors, and potential biochips, based on single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) field effect transistors (FETs). In a SWNT-FET, each conduction channel, a SWNT, is about 2nm in diameter, which is size compatible with a single biomolecule. The electrical conductance of a SWNT-FET device is extremely sensitive to its surrounding chemical and electrostatic environment. It allows direct electrical detection of biological events, such as DNA hybridization and antigen-antibody binding, on the sensor surface. Potential applications include: 1) fully electronic DNA or protein microarrays for molecular diagnosis, which eliminates the need for labor intensive and costy fluorescence labeling; 2) environmental sensors that can rapidly and accurately identify highly pathogenic particles on-the-spot in public places.