Nanofilament Silicon for Ultrasensitive Proteomics

描述(申请人提供)：提出了一种基于纳米硅表面的超灵敏和无基质激光解吸/电离质谱仪(LDI-MS)的新平台。目前，在多孔硅(PSI)芯片上进行的无基质LDI-MS的灵敏度和整体功能受到标准PSI衬底施加的许多因素的限制。在这个方案中，我们试图通过开发新型的硅纳米丝衬底来解决这些问题，该衬底使用金属辅助氧化刻蚀和反应离子刻蚀，使用电润湿来提供对表面疏水性的动态控制。这一特性将允许表面从超疏水状态切换到强亲水状态，允许纳米细丝完全润湿以实现最佳样品沉积，同时限制样品分散并提供一种实现目标样品浓缩的方法，从而使复杂多肽样品的常规检测下限达到10-100 zmol(10-20至10-19摩尔)。 与公共卫生相关：对生物样本中蛋白质的分析使疾病的治疗和诊断取得进展。该项目致力于开发一种基于纳米技术的超灵敏平台，该平台可以提高对有限样本(如组织活检)进行蛋白质分析的能力。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): A novel platform for ultrasensitive and matrix-free laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) based on nanofilament silicon surfaces is proposed. Currently, the sensitivity and overall functionality of matrix-free LDI-MS performed on porous silicon (pSi) chips are limited by a number of factors imposed by standard pSi substrates. In this proposal, we seek to address these issues through the development of novel silicon nanofilament substrates fabricated using metal-assisted oxidative etching and reactive-ion etching, with electrowetting used to provide dynamic control over surface hydrophobicity. This feature will allow switching of the surfaces from a superhydrophobic state to a strongly hydrophilic state, allowing for complete wetting of the nanofilaments for optimal sample deposition while limiting sample dispersion and providing a method to achieve on-target sample concentration, thereby enabling routine detection limits of 10-100 zmol (10-20 to 10-19 mol) for complex peptide samples. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The analysis of proteins from biological samples is enabling advances in the treatment and diagnosis of disease. This project addresses the development of an ultrasensitive nanotechnology-based platform which can improve the ability to perform protein analysis from limited samples such as tissue biopsies.