Plasmoresistor device for optoelectronic transduction

导致心脏病发作的冠心病是最常见的心脏病类型，每年导致38万人死亡。人们普遍认为，血液中的一种特定分子，即心肌肌钙蛋白I，是检测心脏病发作的高度敏感和特异的指标。虽然有许多商业上可用的生物检测方法可以用来检测这种分子，并具有必要的灵敏度和特异性，但这些测试非常耗时，需要经过专门培训的人员。该项目旨在创造一种新型的传感器，能够在资源有限的情况下以高灵敏度和极高的选择性检测心肌肌钙蛋白I。拟议工作的长期影响是缩短心脏病发作发生到确诊之间的时间，以便能够迅速实施适当的治疗，从而挽救生命和提高病人的生活质量。该提案将重点聘用女性和少数族裔研究生进行上述研究。将为本科生提供进行暑期研究的机会。该项目还将为高中生，特别是那些来自代表人数不足的群体的学生，提供参加大学洁净室微米和纳米制造夏令营的机会。体验式学习为基础的科学活动将直接帮助这些高中生为上大学做准备，并提高他们接受专业STEM教育的机会。该项目将利用设备平台上的光信号转换为电输出来检测心脏生物标记物-心肌肌钙蛋白I，具有高灵敏度和特异性。该装置将由覆盖着半导体薄膜的金纳米颗粒组成，并由两个电极接触。发光器件的电导将由等离子体感应的高能热电子确定，这些热电子在金纳米粒子中产生，然后注入半导体薄膜。反过来，金纳米颗粒将被功能化，以专门捕捉与心脏病发作相关的目标生物标记物。当心肌肌钙蛋白I结合时，直接介电环境的变化将导致金纳米颗粒的局域表面等离子体共振波长的移动。这将导致等离子体产生的热电子注入减少，从而降低被照明器件的导电性。因此，光电导的可量化损失将表明用于检测心脏病发作的生物标记物--心肌肌钙蛋白I的存在和浓度。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Coronary heart disease, which leads to heart attack, is the most common type of heart disease killing 380,000 people annually. It has been widely accepted that a specific molecule, the cardiac troponin I, in blood serves as a highly sensitive and specific indicator for the detection of heart attack. While there are numerous commerically available bioassays available to detect this molecule with requisite sensitivity and specificity, these tests are time consuming and require specially trained personnel. This project seeks to create a novel class of sensors which can detect cardiac troponin I with high sensitivity and extreme selectivity in resource-limited settings. The long-term impact of the proposed work is to shorten the time between the occurrence and the determination of a heart attack such that appropriate treatment can be administered rapidly thus saving lives and improving patient quality of life. The proposal will focus on hiring women and minority graduate students for conducting the above research. Opportunities for undergraduate students to conduct summer research will be provided. The project will also provide opportunities for high-school students, especially those from underrepresented groups, to participate in the micro- and nano-fabrication summer camps in the university cleanroom. The experiential learning-based science activities will directly help these high school students to prepare for colleges and improve their chances of pursuing professional STEM education.This project will exploit the conversion of an optical signal into an electrical output on a device platform to detect the cardiac biomarker, the cardiac troponin I, with high sensitivity and specificity. The device will consist of gold nanoparticles covered with a semiconducting film and contacted by two electrodes. The conductance of the illuminated device will be determined by plasmonically induced, energetic hot electrons generated in gold nanoparticles and subsequently injected into the semiconducting film. In turn, the gold nanoparticles will be functionalized to specifically capture the target biomarker associated with heart attack. Upon cardiac troponin I binding, changes to the immediate dielectric environment will result in a shift in localized surface plasmon resonance wavelength of the gold nanoparticles. This will result in the reduction of plasmonically generated hot electron injection and hence lower the conductivity of the illuminated device. Therefore, the quantifiable loss in photoconductivity will signal the presence and concentration of the biomarker, the cardiac troponin I, for detecting heart attack.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.