A Graphene and Aptamer Based Liquid Gated FET-Like Electrochemical Biosensor to Detect Adenosine Triphosphate.

Here we report successful demonstration of a FET-like electrochemical nano-biosensor to accurately detect ultralow concentrations of adenosine triphosphate. As a 2D material, graphene is a promising candidate due to its large surface area, biocompatibility, and demonstrated surface binding chemistries and has been employed as the conducting channel. A short 20-base DNA aptamer is used as the sensing element to ensure that the interaction between the analyte and the aptamer occurs within the Debye length of the electrolyte (PBS).

Detection of Interferon gamma using graphene and aptamer based FET-like electrochemical biosensor.

One of the primary goals in the scientific community is the specific detection of proteins for the medical diagnostics and biomedical applications. Interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) is associated with the tuberculosis susceptibility, which is one of the major health problems globally. We have therefore developed a DNA aptamer-based electrochemical biosensor that is used for the detection of IFN-γ with high selectivity and sensitivity.

Detection of single ion channel activity with carbon nanotubes.

Many processes in life are based on ion currents and membrane voltages controlled by a sophisticated and diverse family of membrane proteins (ion channels), which are comparable in size to the most advanced nanoelectronic components currently under development. Here we demonstrate an electrical assay of individual ion channel activity by measuring the dynamic opening and closing of the ion channel nanopores using single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). Two canonical dynamic ion channels (gramicidin A (gA) and alamethicin) and one static biological nanopore (α-hemolysin (α-HL)) were successfully incorporated into supported lipid bilayers (SLBs, an artificial cell membrane), which in turn were interfaced to the carbon nanotubes through a variety of polymer-cushion surface functionalization schemes.

Polyelectrolyte multilayer electrostatic gating of graphene field-effect transistors.

We apply polyelectrolyte multilayer films by consecutive alternate adsorption of positively charged polyallylamine hydrochloride and negatively charged sodium polystyrene sulfonate to the surface of graphene field effect transistors. Oscillations in the Dirac voltage shift with alternating positive and negative layers clearly demonstrate the electrostatic gating effect in this simple model system. A simple electrostatic model accounts well for the sign and magnitude of the Dirac voltage shift.

Charging the quantum capacitance of graphene with a single biological ion channel.

The interaction of cell and organelle membranes (lipid bilayers) with nanoelectronics can enable new technologies to sense and measure electrophysiology in qualitatively new ways. To date, a variety of sensing devices have been demonstrated to measure membrane currents through macroscopic numbers of ion channels. However, nanoelectronic based sensing of single ion channel currents has been a challenge.