Recently, the Wei Dacheng Research Group of the Department of Polymer Sciences and the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Molecular Engineering of Fudan University has developed a transistor sensing chip based on "molecular electromechanical systems" (molems), which is based on "Rapid and ultrasensitive electromechanical detection of ions, biomolecules and SARS-CoV-2 RNA in." unamplified samples" titled in Nature · Biomedical Engineering。
Researcher Wei Dacheng told Guo Hu: "At this stage, our team is actively carrying out exchanges and cooperation with some units and enterprises, and will update and improve technology on the basis of this research in the future, hoping to gradually implement the research through interdisciplinary cooperation." ”
Wei Dacheng's team is conducting experiments | Courtesy of the team
Abundance of some health-related markers in living organisms, especially in the early stages of certain diseases, tends to be low. Detecting trace markers in complex biological liquids can be disturbed by a large amount of background material. Therefore, the realization of accurate detection in biological liquids is of great significance for biological research, precision medicine and early diagnosis of diseases.
Although micro/nano electromechanical systems have the characteristics of high integration and low price, and the response process of organisms to certain environmental signals is precisely manipulated by some biomolecules, often with higher sensing performance than artificial systems, the development of electromechanical systems with higher accuracy is still of great significance for achieving trace biomarker detection.
The "Molecular Electromechanical System" (MolEMS) proposed by Wei Dacheng's team is a micro-device that is self-assembled by DNA molecules and driven by an external electric field to accurately regulate the process of molecular recognition and signal transformation. Assembling molecular electromechanical systems onto graphene field-effect transistors significantly improves the response of transistor channel currents to chemical signals.
In buffers or bio-liquids, ultra-sensitive detection of metal ions (Hg2+), proteins (Thrombin), biological small molecules (ATP), and new coronavirus nucleic acids (RNA and cDNA) is achieved. Detecting new coronavirus nucleic acid samples does not require a complex and time-consuming nucleic acid extraction and amplification process, with a minimum detection limit of 10 to 20 copies per milliliter and an electrical response time of less than 4 minutes, which is better than the existing new crown nucleic acid PCR detection methods. Compared with the micro/nano electromechanical system, the molecular electromechanical system realizes more accurate regulation of the sensing process, which provides a new idea for the construction of high-precision artificial functional systems and the application of trace biomarker detection.
(a) Schematic diagram of micro/nano electromechanical systems; (b) schematic diagram of molecular electromechanical systems; (c-e) transistor sensor and chip picture based on molecular electromechanical system; (g-f) Confocal fluorescence microscopy and atomic force microscopy characterization picture of sensing chip | Courtesy of the team
Wei Dacheng believes that research results can not only stay at the level of academic papers, but also be meaningful when further applied to the technology of products. Talking about the application scenario of "molecular electromechanical systems", he told us: "The transistors used in the system for detection can be manufactured by semiconductor processing and easy integration into portable systems. Once the technology matures, the testing device can be easily portable and can be tested in the field at airports, clinics and local emergency rooms, or even at home. In the future, regardless of whether such a system can be used for the detection of the new crown virus, the design of the molecular structure on the surface of the transistor can also be applied in other pathogens and disease detection fields. One of the future application forms is a miniature detection chip similar to a test strip. ”
Next, Wei Dacheng's team will focus on developing a fast, highly integrated, automated portable disease detection system and clinical verification, and at the same time, they will further develop new technologies for transistor sensing interface modification to achieve more accurate detection of disease markers. In terms of improving the stability and parallelism of system devices, the research team will optimize the design and processing technology of the device structure, establish standardized materials and device processing processes, improve the consistency of device performance, and make further preparations for industrialization.
"Future applications also need to establish standardized sensor chip manufacturing processes and validate them in clinical use. The research is still in the stage of theoretical verification, and there is still a way to industrialization. Wei Dacheng told Guo Hu, "At this stage, our team has actively carried out exchanges and cooperation with some units and enterprises, and will update and improve technology on the basis of this research in the future, hoping to gradually implement the research through interdisciplinary cooperation." ”
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Research team
Corresponding author Wei Dacheng: Researcher, doctoral supervisor. He graduated from the Department of Polymer Materials and Engineering of Zhejiang University with a bachelor's degree, graduated from the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences with a doctorate, studied under Professor Dai Hongjie, academician of the National Academy of Sciences and foreign academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and has been a researcher in the State Key Laboratory of Polymer Molecular Engineering, Department of Polymer Science & Laboratory of Molecular Materials and Devices of Fudan University since 2014. Research focuses on the research field of transistor materials and devices, develops controllable synthesis technology for such materials, and studies the application of such materials in the fields of new transistor devices, photoelectric sensors, and chemical and biological sensors, and has achieved a series of innovative achievements. At present, he has published more than 100 papers, of which 24 papers have been published in authoritative journals with an impact factor of >10.
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