Implementation of Low Cost, High-Throughput and High Sensitive Biomarker Detection Technique in Serum/Plasma Samples by Integrating Dielectrophoresis and Fluorescence Based Platform

Low-cost, highly-sensitivity, and minimally invasive tests for the detection and monitoring of life-threatening cancers can reduce the worldwide disease burden. The disease diagnosis community is constantly working to improve the detection capabilities of the deadly cancers (e.g.: pancreatic and lung) at their early stages. Still there were many cancers cannot be detected at their early stages due to lack of early diagnosis techniques. One of the reason being, many cancers that occur in the body release minute amounts of biomarker molecules during the initial stages (e.g.: DNA, RNA, miRNA and antigens) in the body fluids such as blood and serum. Since the traditional bio-sensing techniques have reached their maximum capacity in terms of critical performance parameters (sensitivity, detection time, reproducibility and limit of detection) there is an urgent need for innovative approaches that can fill this gap. To address this unmet need, here we report on developing a novel bio-sensing technique for detecting and quantifying biomolecules from the patients’ plasma/serum samples at point-of-care settings. Here we have investigated the novel interactions between biomolecules and externally applied fields to effectively manipulate and specifically concentrate them at a certain detection spots near electrodes on the detection device. Then the near-field interactions between the fluorophores and the free electrons on metal surfaces were successfully integrated with the externally applied low frequency (<10MHz) electric field, to achieve maximum florescence enhancement, that produces the detection limit of target-biomolecules in the rage of femto molars (fM). Moreover, the externally applied electric potential produces dielectrophoretic and thermophoretic force on the biomolecules, together with these forces we were able to separate the fluorophore-labelled rare target-biomolecules from the others in a sample. The novel integrated technique is tested and proved to be superior to the current gold standards (qRT-PCR and ELISA) for target-biomolecules detection in critical performance parameters. Finally the technique was used to analyze healthy and pancreatic cancer patients’ samples and further it has been proved that we can differentiate the healthy individuals and cancer patients. In addition, this technique is being applied to the other diseases such as obesity, opioid addiction and other types of cancers

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