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Programming the detection limits of biosensors through controlled nanostructuring

Nature Nanotechnology volume 4, pages 844–848 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Advances in materials chemistry offer a range of nanostructured shapes and textures for building new biosensors1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. Previous reports have implied that controlling the properties of sensor substrates can improve detection sensitivities, but the evidence remains indirect11,12,13. Here we show that by nanostructuring the sensing electrodes, it is possible to create nucleic acid sensors that have a broad range of sensitivities and that are capable of rapid analysis. Only highly branched electrodes with fine structuring attained attomolar sensitivity. Nucleic acid probes immobilized on finely nanostructured electrodes appear more accessible and therefore complex more rapidly with target molecules in solution. By forming arrays of microelectrodes with different degrees of nanostructuring, we expanded the dynamic range of a sensor system from two to six orders of magnitude. The demonstration of an intimate link between nanoscale sensor structure and biodetection sensitivity will aid the development of high performance diagnostic tools for biology and medicine.

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Figure 1: Programmable NMEs.
Figure 2: Comparison of NMEs with diverse nanostructuring.
Figure 3: Electrocatalytic nucleic acid detection at NMEs.
Figure 4: Comparison of the detection limit and dynamic range of three probe-modified Pd NMEs with different levels of nanostructuring.
Figure 5: Hybridization kinetics observed for two different types of NMEs.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to acknowledge Genome Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Innovation and Research, the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and NSERC for their support of this work. We also acknowledge X. Sun for his contributions to the optimization of electrodeposition conditions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Engineering,

    Leyla Soleymani & Edward H. Sargent

  2. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy,

    Zhichao Fang & Shana O. Kelley

  3. Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Shana O. Kelley

Authors
  1. Leyla Soleymani
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  2. Zhichao Fang
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  3. Edward H. Sargent
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  4. Shana O. Kelley
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Contributions

L.S., Z.F., E.H.S. and S.O.K. conceived and designed the experiments; L.S. and Z.F. performed the experiments; L.S. and Z.F. analysed the data. All authors discussed the results and co-wrote and commented on the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Edward H. Sargent or Shana O. Kelley.

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Soleymani, L., Fang, Z., Sargent, E. et al. Programming the detection limits of biosensors through controlled nanostructuring. Nature Nanotech 4, 844–848 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.276

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