Motorized Nanolabs: Dually High-Speed and Ultrasensitive Bioanalysis

本研究的目的是研究一种新的生化分析系统的概念，该系统由机动微/纳米传感器组成，具有前所未有的高灵敏度和检测速度，与疾病诊断和早期干预有关。尽管在生物分析领域，纳米传感器具有极高的灵敏度，但流体样品中分子检测的低效率仍然是一个巨大的挑战。在超低浓度下，分子与纳米传感器的附着机会很低，这是一个挑战。这一固有问题极大地阻碍了纳米传感器在疾病早期诊断中的实际应用。在这项工作中，提出了一种先进的驱动方法来实现一个生物分析系统，即机器人纳米实验室，它将利用超灵敏的纳米传感器阵列来主动提高分子的捕获速度。高速、灵敏的生物分析系统将用于检测胰腺癌的多种生物标志物，用于早期诊断。拟议的研究将与各种教育和外联工作结合起来。将组织一个研讨会，聚集来自学术界和工业界的主要研究人员来促进对纳米传感器的讨论。结果将在会议上传播。设备模块将在探索ut（德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校）和女生节等特定活动中进行演示，以激发公众对新技术突破的兴趣和认识。近年来，研究人员已经开发出具有单分子水平灵敏度的纳米级传感器。然而，由于小传感区域捕获分子的概率很低，这些器件的纳米级特性导致了超灵敏检测的低检测速度。复杂的制造和集成方案进一步加剧了困难。为了克服这些问题，本研究的目的是研究一种新的机动纳米实验室概念，为生物检测和分析提供前所未有的超灵敏度、运动控制和鲁棒性。电动纳米实验室将通过具有高重复性检测方案的拉曼微/纳米传感器阵列来实现。该系统将被智能、高效地控制，用于癌症生物标志物的高速检测。低浓度生物标志物的检测时间可以大大缩短，例如从几小时缩短到几分钟。如果成功，这项研究可能会激发一类创新的生物传感器用于早期癌症检测和干预。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The objective of this research is to investigate a new concept of a biochemical analysis system made of motorized micro/nanosensors that offers unprecedented high sensitivity and detection speed of biomarkers, relevant to disease diagnosis and early intervention. Although significant efforts have been made in advancing nanosensors with extremely high sensitivity for bioanalysis, the low efficiency of the detection of molecules in fluidic samples remains a grand unmet challenge. The challenge arises from low attachment opportunities of molecules to a nanosensor at ultralow concentrations. This intrinsic problem has greatly hindered the practical applications of nanosensors in early disease diagnosis. In this work, an advanced actuation approach is proposed to realize a bioanalysis system, namely robotic nanolab, which will actively enhance the capture speed of molecules by utilizing arrays of ultrasensitive nanosensors. The high speed and sensitive bioanalysis system will be applied for the detection of multiple biomarkers of pancreas cancers for early-stage diagnosis. The proposed research will be combined with various educational and outreach efforts. A workshop will be organized that will gather leading researchers from both academia and industry to facilitate a discussion on nanosensors. Results will be disseminated in conferences. Demonstrations of device module will be conducted in specific events, including explore-UT (University of Texas at Austin) and Girl's Day, to inspire the public interest and awareness of new technological breakthroughs.In recent years, researchers have developed nanoscale sensors with sensitivity at the single-molecule level. However, the nanoscale features of these devices that enable ultrasensitive detection undesirably results in low detection speed, due to the low probability of molecules captured by small sensing areas. The difficulties are further compounded by the complex fabrication and integration schemes. To overcome these issues, the objective of this research is to investigate a new concept of motorized nanolab to offer unprecedented ultrasensitivity, motion control, and robustness for biodetection and analysis. The motorized nanolab will be realized by arrays of Raman micro/nanosensors with highly reproducible detection scheme. The system will be controlled intelligently and efficiently for high-speed detection of cancer biomarkers. The detection time of biomarkers at low concentrations could be substantially reduced, e.g. from hours to minutes. If successful, this research could inspire an innovative class of biosensors for early cancer detection and intervention.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.