AVS 51st International Symposium
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session NS-TuA

Paper NS-TuA1
Virus & Biomolecule Detection Using Nanoelectromechanical Devices

Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 1:20 pm, Room 213D

Session: Nanostructures and Biology
Presenter: B. Ilic, Cornell University
Authors: B. Ilic, Cornell University
Y. Yang, Cornell University
H.G. Craighead, Cornell University
Correspondent: Click to Email
We have used resonating mechanical cantilevers to detect binding of viruses and biomolecules captured from liquid. As a model virus, we used a nonpathogenic insect baculovirus to test the ability to immunospecifically bind and detect small numbers of virus particles. Arrays of surface micromachined antibody-coated polycrystalline silicon nanomechanical cantilever beams were used to detect binding from various concentrations of baculoviruses in a buffer solution, by observing the resonant frequency shift of the oscillators. Because of their small mass, the 0.5µm x 6µm cantilevers have mass sensitivities on the order of 10@super -19@ g/Hz, enabling the detection of an immobilized AcV1 antibody monolayer corresponding to a mass of about 3 x 10@super -15@g. With these devices we can detect the mass of a single virus to the cantilever. Resonant frequency shift, resulting from the adsorbed mass of the virus particles, distinguished solutions of virus concentrations varying between 10@super 5@ and 10@super 7@ pfu/ml. Single crystal silicon nanomechanical oscillators with spatially-defined chemical binding sites, with greater mass sensitivity, have similarly been used to detect the binding of specifically bound biomolecules at the attogram level. In both experiments careful controls were done to assure the detected mass resulted from the intended specifically bound biomaterial.