Rare Molecule Biomarker Detection Using Dielectrophoresis Spectroscopy

According to the American cancer society, 1.9 million new cancer cases and 608,570 cancer deaths are projected to occur in the United States. There is a fundamental technology gap that prevents the availability of tools for the diagnosis of cancer and genetic diseases as well as the genetic predisposition to developing certain diseases such as diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. The prognosis of several types of cancer can be done through blood tests to detect the concentration level of the respective biomarkers. However, detecting biomarkers is still difficult with existing methods such as ELISA, Surface Plasmon resonance, and PCR techniques. The existing techniques have drawbacks due to complicated and time-consuming protocols, thus requiring the presence of an expert to handle complex and expensive pieces of equipment. Therefore, there is a need to develop a cost-effective transduction mechanism for biomarker detectors that could be used for cancer screening at the point-of-care preferably using as a single finger-prick blood droplet from the patients that have the combination of high sensitivity, high specificity, and low complexity to detect cancer at an early stage. To address the limitations on the current techniques for biomarker detection, we developed a label-free automated real-time image processing technique based on dielectrophoresis (DEP) spectroscopy that is an effective transduction mechanism of a biosensor for the disease biomarker detection. A substantial change in the negative DEP force applied to functionalized polystyrene microspheres (PM) was observed to both the concentration level of the disease biomarker and the frequency of the electric field produced by interdigitated gold microelectrode. The velocity of repulsion of the PM attached to the disease biomarker from the electrode was determined using a side illumination and automated software using a real-time image processing technique that captures the Mie scattering from the PM. Since negative DEP spectroscopy is an effective transduction mechanism for the detection of the cutoff levels of disease biomarker, it has the potential to be used in the early-stage diagnosis and the prognosis of cancer

Biosensor for the Characterization of Gene Expression in Cells

We developed a new label-free biosensor technique for the detection of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) that can be used in the prognosis and diagnosis of certain diseases. We observed a dependence of the negative dielectrophoresis (DEP) force applied to polystyrene microspheres (PMs) in conjugation with different types of mRNA and the frequency of the electric field produced by interdigitated microelectrodes. Since the frequency dependence of the negative DEP force is an effective transduction mechanism for the detection of mRNA, this sensing technology has the potential to be used in the diagnosis and identification of gene expression that is associated with various human disease

Dielectrophoresis-Based Biosensor for Detection of the Cancer Biomarkers CEA and CA 242 in Serum

We show that dielectrophoresis (DEP) spectroscopy is an effective transduction mechanism for detection of the concentration levels of the pancreatic cancer biomarkers cancer antigen (CA) 242 and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in serum. We noticed a frequency dependence of the negative DEP force applied by interdigitated electrodes on functionalized polystyrene microspheres (PM) with respect to changes in the number of these cancer antigens bound to the PM. An electrode array with a well-defined gradient of the electric field was designed and used, which enabled the automation of the signal processing and reproducibility of the signal acquired by the biosensor

Ultra Compact Photonic Crystal Based Sensor for Detecting Bioterrorism

In this paper a photonic crystal based ring resonator structure which can sense anthrax in water in the wavelength range of 1530-1565 nm for detecting bioterrorism has been successfully demonstrated

Label-Free Biosensing Method for the Detection of a Pancreatic Cancer Biomarker Based on Dielectrophoresis Spectroscopy

We show that negative dielectrophoresis (DEP) spectroscopy is an effective transduction mechanism of a biosensor for the diagnosis and prognosis of pancreatic cancer using the biomarker CA 19-9. A substantial change in the negative DEP force applied to functionalized polystyrene microspheres (PM) was observed with respect to both the concentration level of the pancreatic cancer biomarker CA 19-9 and the frequency of the electric field produced by a pearl shaped interdigitated gold micro-electrode. The velocity of repulsion of a set of PM functionalized to a monoclonal antibody to CA 19-9 was calculated for several concentration cutoff levels of CA 19-9, including 0 U/mL and 37 U/mL, at the frequency range from 0.5 to 2 MHz. The velocity of repulsion of the PM from the electrode was determined using a side illumination and an automated software using a real-time image processing technique that captures the Mie scattering from the PM. Since negative DEP spectroscopy is an effective transduction mechanism for the detection of the cutoff levels of CA 19-9, it has the potential to be used in the early stage diagnosis and in the prognosis of pancreatic cancer

2-D Photonic Crystal based Bio-chip for DNA Analysis of Breast Cancer

The work is basically focused on the Design and simulation of Bio-chip based Optical Sensor for the DNA analysis. In medical science it has been observed that the physical agents or errors in DNA replication alter the usual DNA sequence causing cancer and other genetic diseases. It takes 5-7 years for a normal cell to become cancerous. 70% of the cancer conditions that are detected are at the advanced stage. In this paper we have demonstrated a Nano-platform based chip which is highly sensitive for the change in refractive index and thus can easily differentiate the normal and cancerous DNA. Computation has been done by using the tool of MEEP & MPB by using FDTD algorithm. An analysis of normal cell breast DNA and Breast Cancer cell DNA has been done. The obtained spectral behavior shows the maximum amplitude for normal breast DNA is 0.1802 where as for benign DNA and malignant DNA is 0.1791 and 0.1795 respectively. The wavelength shifts were also observed for normal breast DNA at 1.845 um and benign DNA at1.846 um and malignant DNA at 1.8447 um. The quality factor of the proposed design is 118563 and a sensitivity of 10-6. Further the proposed chip design for the fabrication is possible by doing the layout GDSII file format and IMEC IPKISS tool