Superfund Research Program
Development of Rapid, Miniaturized Biosensors
Project Leader: Ian M. Kennedy
Grant Number: P42ES004699
Funding Period: 2000-2015
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New nanoscale materials have been developed for biosensing. Researchers have found a fast, simple method for the synthesis of nanoparticles of porous silica that contain both a lanthanide chelate and islands of silver. They found that the silver ehanced the signal from our lanthanide element by a factor of 20 or more, offering the potential for more sensitive bioassays for environmental toxins. Researchers have also shown that it is possible to use up-converting phosphor materials as platforms for bioassays. In this case, invisible near infrared light is used to excite the phosphor nanoparticles to provide a signal with almost no background and excellent detection limits. A gold coating offers the possibility to attach a wide range of bio detection elements such as antibodies or DNA fragments. Researchers tested the sensitivity of our nanoparticles in DNA-hybridization assays for detection of MTBE degrading bacteria with a capillary-based system and studied the effect of magnetic mixing on kinetics of the DNA hybridization reaction in microchannel. The magnetic mixing was found to speed up the DNA assay by about a factor of 5. They have succeeded in fabricating a nanoarray on a chip using clean-room technology. The array has a series of patterned holes with nano dimensions into which attract particles with a range of bio detection elements. This can function as a reconfigurable and regenerable array for DNA analysis and protein analysis.