Bioassays based on molecular nanomechanics

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Majumdar, Arun

Affiliations: Nanoengineering Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Tel.: +1 510 643 8199; Fax: +1 510 642 6163; E-mail: majumdar@me.berkeley.edu

Abstract: Recent experiments have shown that when specific biomolecular interactions are confined to one surface of a microcantilever beam, changes in intermolecular nanomechanical forces provide sufficient differential torque to bend the cantilever beam. This has been used to detect single base pair mismatches during DNA hybridization, as well as prostate specific antigen (PSA) at concentrations and conditions that are clinically relevant for prostate cancer diagnosis. Since cantilever motion originates from free energy change induced by specific biomolecular binding, this technique is now offering a common platform for label-free quantitative analysis of protein-protein binding, DNA hybridization DNA-protein interactions, and in general receptor-ligand interactions. Current work is focused on developing "universal microarrays" of microcantilever beams for high-throughput multiplexed bioassays.

Keywords: molecular nanomechanics, microcantilever beams, bioassay, universal microarrays

Journal: Disease Markers, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 167-174, 2002