Paper-based microfluidic devices intergrating inGaN/GaN semiconductor microtubes for ultrasensitive detection of disease markers

便携式超灵敏生物传感器能够在护理点快速检测疾病相关标志物，通过实现早期疾病诊断和及时治疗，将对医疗保健产生巨大影响。该项目旨在开发一种新型纸基微流体平台技术，该技术可用于为各种基于亲和力的分析测试创建超灵敏纸基半导体生物传感器。我们将探索一种新的策略，将专门设计的InGaN/GaN微管以良好的控制方式集成到纸基微流体设备上。与其它半导体材料（例如，Si和碳纳米管），InGaN/GaN由于其更高的电子迁移率和表面积累的电荷载流子而对生物分子的表面结合更敏感，并且可以直接将生化反应转换为具有高灵敏度和快速响应的电信号。在这个项目中，一个独特的技术创新是将两种功能材料，纤维素纸和III族氮化物（例如，InGaN/GaN），以创造一种优秀的生物传感器，继承了纸基微流体和基于III族氮化物的生物传感的优点。在概念验证方面，我们将使用拟议的纸基设备检测血液样本中的低浓度HIV p24抗原。拟议的平台技术将为早期疾病诊断提供高性能解决方案，并将开发其他类型的纸基电子传感器，用于环境监测，食品安全检查和消费电子等非诊断应用。

Portable, ultrasensitive biosensors capable of rapidly detecting disease-relevant markers at the point of care will have an enormous impact on health care by enabling early-stage disease diagnosis and timely treatment. This project aims at developing a novel paper-based microfluidic platform technology that is generic for creating ultrasensitive paper-based semiconductor biosensors for various affinity-based analytical tests. We will explore a new strategy of integrating specifically designed InGaN/GaN microtubes onto paper-based microfluidic devices in a well-controlled fashion. Compared to other semiconductor materials (e.g., Si and carbon nanotube), InGaN/GaN are more sensitive to surface binding of biomolecules due to its higher electron mobility and surface-accumulated charge carriers, and can directly convert a biochemical reaction into an electrical signal with ultrahigh sensitivity and fast response. A unique technological innovation to be made in this project is the combination of two enabling functional materials, cellulose paper and group-III nitrides (e.g., InGaN/GaN), to create an excellent type of biosensors that inherit the advantages of both paper-based microfluidics and group-III nitride based biosensing. For proof-of-concept demonstration, we will use the proposed paper-based devices for detection of low-concentration HIV p24 antigen in blood samples. The proposed platform technology will lead to a high-performance solution to early-stage disease diagnosis, and will also enable the development of other types of paper-based electronic sensors for non-diagnostic applications such as environmental monitoring, food safety inspection, and consumer electronics.