PFI (MCA): Rapid Ultrasensitive Biomarker Detection Chip for Early Lung Cancer Diagnosis

创新伙伴关系-中期职业发展（PFI (MCA)）项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是早期癌症的诊断。肺癌是癌症死亡的主要原因，由于早期诊断的挑战，每天都有许多人失去生命，五年生存率仅为18%。为了应对这些挑战，该项目寻求开发一个强大的便携式癌症生物标志物检测平台，用于早期癌症检测。本研究可提高对肺癌患者的干预和预后，影响各种疾病的早期诊断。该项目还将通过向学生提供创业、技术转让和商业化方面的知识和培训，培育下一代创新者和企业家的培训基地。这个项目可以扩大生物技术产业，巩固美国在癌症研究方面的全球领导地位。该项目旨在建立一个创新的片上传感平台的原型，以克服生物传感中的挑战，即在水样品中高速和超灵敏地检测生物分子的困难。纳米技术的进步使得纳米传感器具有单分子灵敏度。然而，赋予生物检测超高灵敏度的纳米尺度特征不可避免地导致了较长的检测时间，因为在其小的传感表面上捕获生物分子的概率很低。这一挑战阻碍了现实世界中纳米传感的应用，例如早期诊断和癌症干预。如果早期诊断，可以显著提高肺癌患者的生存率。在这里，该团队将利用最近发现的检测机制，即生物分子仅在激光照射的光电纳米结构点聚集，克服上述生物传感障碍。该项目包括集成芯片平台的设计、制造和原型制作。如果成功，该项目可能会将癌症生物标志物的检测限提高几个数量级。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 broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Mid-Career Advancement (PFI (MCA)) project is in the diagnosis of early stage cancers. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancerous death, resulting in numerous lives lost every day due to the challenges in its early stage diagnosis and a five-year survival rate of only ~18%. To address these challenges, the project seeks to develop a robust and portable cancer biomarker detection platform for early stage cancer detection. This research may improve the intervention and prognosis for lung cancer patients and impact the diagnosis of various diseases at early stages. The project will also foster a training ground for the next generation innovators and entrepreneurs by providing the knowledge and training in entrepreneurship, technological transfer, and commercialization to students. This project could expand the biotechnology industry and cement US global leadership in cancer research.This project seeks to prototype an innovative on-chip sensing platform to overcome challenges in biosensing, i.e., the difficulty in detecting biomolecules with both high speed and ultrasensitivity in aqueous samples. Progress in nanotechnologies has advanced nanosensors with single-molecule sensitivity. Nevertheless, the nanoscale features that endow ultrahigh sensitivity in biodetection inevitably result in a long detection times due to the low probabilities of capturing biomolecules on their small sensing surfaces. This challenge has hindered the real world nanosensing applications, such as in early stage diagnosis and intervention of cancers. If diagnosed early, the survival rate of lung cancer patients can be significantly improved. Here, the team will leverage a recently discovered detection mechanism, whereby biomolecules aggregate only at the point of laser illuminated optoelectric nanostructures, overcoming the aforementioned biosensing barriers. The project includes the design, fabrication, and prototyping of an integrated on-chip platform. AIf successful, this project may improve the detection limit of cancerous biomarkers by several orders of magnitude.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.