Nanofilament Silicon for Ultrasensitive Proteomics

描述（由申请人提供）：提出了一种基于纳米丝硅表面的超灵敏和无基质激光解吸/电离质谱（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。在这项提案中，我们试图解决这些问题，通过开发新的硅纳米丝基板制造使用金属辅助氧化蚀刻和反应离子蚀刻，与电润湿用于提供动态控制表面疏水性。该特征将允许表面从超疏水状态切换到强亲水状态，允许纳米丝的完全润湿以实现最佳样品沉积，同时限制样品分散并提供实现靶向样品浓度的方法，从而使得复杂肽样品的常规检测限为10-100 zmol（10-20至10-19 mol）。 公共卫生相关性：对生物样品中蛋白质的分析使疾病的治疗和诊断取得了进展。该项目致力于开发一种基于超灵敏纳米技术的平台，该平台可以提高从组织活检等有限样本中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.