Multiplexed detection of disease markers is very crucial in developing sensitive and specific biomolecular assays. For example, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted the importance of the rapid and accurate detection of pathogens for disease identification and pandemic mitigation. The recent technological interventions and advancements in COVID-19 diagnosis are primarily focused on nucleic acid-based molecular tests (qRT-PCR/Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) and less sensitive single antigen-based immunological assays (i.e., Lateral flow immunoassay). Thus, there is a continued need to develop sensing or diagnostic assays for COVID-19 and other future pandemics/diseases which can be multiplexed, rapid, POC (point-of-care), sensitive, and fulfils many other economic and ergonomic considerations. In our previous work, we demonstrated an ultra-rapid (≤ 3 min), highly sensitive (LoD: 100 copies/ml; 0.71 ng /ml of N protein), high-specificity detection of SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swab specimens from the patients using microcantilever sensor. Prior to detection, the sensor surface was made amenable for receptor binding through surface chemical functionalization using EDC-NHS chemistry. In this presentation, we discuss our developed sensor platform that can be made accessible in point-of-care settings by leveraging alternative detection modalities like a metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) detector for electronic readout in a handheld device. MOSFET-based microcantilever sensors enable simultaneous multiplexed detection of multiple analytes corresponding to disease pathogenesis facilitating an improved specificity and selectivity. The MOSFET sensor systems are compatible with different sample medium (serum, swab, saliva, breath), antigenic proteins, molecular tests (DNA/RNA) and can be mass produced (scalable) to reduce the final cost. MOSFET based sensor can also have applications in other relevant fields, such as detection of multiple marker proteins related to other respiratory diseases, cancer, HIV, environmental pollutants, water contaminants, and other diagnostics using a single chip.

Microcantilever/MOSFET based rapid and multiplexed diagnostic platform: A versatile sensor approach towards SARS-CoV-2 and other related pathogens detection

Fall 2022 abstracts, posters, and presentations will launch in mid-September.

ACS Fall 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.