Journal Article

Active accumulation of very diluted biomolecules by nano-dispensing for easy detection below the femtomolar range

Grilli, S., Coppola, S., Ferraro, P., Orlando, P., Vespini, V., Miccio, L., Gennari, O., Battista, L.

2014

Overview

Highly sensitive detection of biomolecules is of paramount interest in many fields including biomedicine, safety and eco-pollution. Conventional analyses use well-established techniques with detection limits ~1 pM. Here we propose a pyro-concentrator able to accumulate biomolecules directly onto a conventional binding surface. The operation principle is relatively simple but very effective. Tiny droplets are drawn pyro-electro-dynamically and released onto a specific site, thus increasing the sensitivity. The reliability of the technique is demonstrated in case of labelled oligonucleotides diluted serially. The results show the possibility to detect very diluted oligonucleotides, down to a few hundreds of attomoles. Excellent results are shown also in case of a sample of clinical interest, the gliadin, where a 60-fold improved detection limit is reached, compared with standard ELISA. This method could open the way to a mass-based technology for sensing molecules at very low concentrations, in environmental as well as in diagnostics applications. Biomolecule detection is important in many fields, but obviously becomes increasingly difficult as concentrations decrease. Here, the authors demonstrate a method to dispense and concentrate biomolecules onto a target slide, greatly improving the detection limits.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/1647/2196 / 639/301/1005/1009 / 82 / 82/62 / Detection limits / Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Gliadin - analysis / Humanities and Social Sciences / Limit of Detection / multidisciplinary / Nanotechnology / Oligonucleotides - analysis / Pollution detection / Reproducibility of Results / Science / Science (multidisciplinary)