Micromechanical mass sensors for biomolecular detection in a physiological environment

Thomas Braun, Viola Barwich, Murali Krishna Ghatkesar, Adriaan H. Bredekamp, Christoph Gerber, Martin Hegner , and Hans Peter Lang

Phys. Rev. E 72, 031907 – Published 14 September 2005

Abstract

Micromechanical cantilever arrays are used to measure time-resolved adsorption of tiny masses based on protein-ligand interactions. Here, streptavidin-biotin interactions are investigated in a physiological environment. A measurement method is introduced using higher flexural modes of a silicon cantilever in order to enhance the sensitivity of mass detection. Modeling the cantilever vibration in liquid allows the measurement of absolute mass changes. We show time-resolved mass adsorption of final $7 \pm 0.7 ng$ biotinylated latex beads. The sensitivity obtained is about $2.5 pg ∕ Hz$ measuring at a center frequency of 750 kHz.

Received 1 April 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.72.031907

Authors & Affiliations

Thomas Braun^*, Viola Barwich^*, Murali Krishna Ghatkesar^*, Adriaan H. Bredekamp, Christoph Gerber, Martin Hegner ^†, and Hans Peter Lang^‡

National Center of Competence for Research in Nanoscience, Institute of Physics, University of Basel, 4056 Basel, Switzerland

^*Spokesperson.
^†Author to whom correspondence should be addressed
^‡Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Also at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, 8803 Rueschlikon, Switzerland.

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Vol. 72, Iss. 3 — September 2005

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Physical Review E

covering statistical, nonlinear, biological, and soft matter physics