Nano-Mechanical Transduction of Polymer Micro-Cantilevers to Detect Bio-Molecular Interactions

作者：Urwyler Prabitha; Koeser Joachim; Schift Helmut; Gobrecht Jens; Mueller Bert

来源：Biointerphases: An Open Access Journal for the Biomaterials Interface Community , 2012, 7(1-4): 6.

DOI：10.1007/s13758-011-0006-6

Using variothermal polymer micro-injection molding, disposable arrays of eight polymer micro-cantilevers each 500 mu m long, 100 mu m wide and 25 mu m thick were fabricated. The present study took advantage of an easy flow grade polypropylene. After gold coating for optical read-out and asymmetrical sensitization, the arrays were introduced into the Cantisens (R) Research system to perform mechanical and functional testing. We demonstrate that polypropylene cantilevers can be used as biosensors for medical purposes in the same manner as the established silicon ones to detect single-stranded DNA sequences and metal ions in real-time. A differential signal of 7 nm was detected for the hybridization of 1 mu M complementary DNA sequences. For 100 nM copper ions the differential signal was found to be (36 +/- 5) nm. Nano-mechanical sensing of medically relevant, nanometer-size species is essential for fast and efficient diagnosis.

• 出版日期2012-12