In this study, single-walled carbon a nanotubes (SWCNTs) were used to fabricate to liquid gated SWCNT Field-Effect Transistor (FET), which was used to detect MicroRNA (miRNA). Due to the need for non-invasive biomarkers that are label-free, the feasibility for the detection of miRNA using the liquid gated SWCNT-FET was experimented.
The experiment was conducted using the mir-21 sequence which has been known to cause several cancers. Two further sequences, single-base mismatch and a non-complementary sequence was also investigated in the experimented. Finally, the sequences were tested together with rat liver total RNA extract to mimic clinical conditions.
Results obtained showed that the sensitivity of the device was limited to 0.1 μM. Specificity tests done showed that the device was able to distinguish between the complementary and non-complementary sequence but was unable to detect single-base match sequence
The results showed that the device produced repeatable and stable results. However, characteristics such as specificity and sensitivity can be optimized by improving the quality of the device.Bachelor of Engineering (Materials Engineering
