Development of Nanomechanical Sensors for Breast Cancer Biomarkers
Abstract
Advances In nanotechnology have the potential to lead to new techniques for developing silicon-based arrays for sensing biomarkers that may be associated with breast cancer. Until recently, breast cancer research has focused on a small number of genes or proteins as primary biomarkers. This approach has been extremely useful in clarifying% general aspects of the disease. In order to develop patient-specific therapy, tailored for each individual, parallel detection of a large number (approx. 10(3)-10(4)) biomarkers may be required. There is a need for high throughput, sensitive methods for rapidly recording biomarker profiles of tumors in individual patients. We report results on the measurement of conductance change in bio-functionalized silicon nanowires. For large microscale sensors, the conductance is dominated by volume effects, which are not particularly sensitive to the binding of biomolecules to the surface. For nanoscale wires, such as those used in this study, the change is primarily due to the contribution of surface states to the conductance. The fractional change is greatest for the smallest sensors, due to the increased surface-to-volume ratio.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA442728
Entities
People
- Shyamsunder Erramilli
Organizations
- Boston University