Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Genetic analysis methods are foundational to advancing personalized medicine, accelerating disease diagnostics, and monitoring the health of organisms and ecosystems. Current nucleic acid technologies such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and next-generation sequencing (NGS) rely on sample amplification and can suffer from inhibition. Here, we introduce a label-free genetic screening platform based on high quality (high-Q) factor silicon nanoantennas functionalized with nucleic acid fragments. Each high-Q nanoantenna exhibits average resonant quality factors of 2,200 in physiological buffer. We quantitatively detect two gene fragments, SARS-CoV-2 envelope (E) and open reading frame 1b (ORF1b), with high-specificity via DNA hybridization. We also demonstrate femtomolar sensitivity in buffer and nanomolar sensitivity in spiked nasopharyngeal eluates within 5 minutes. Nanoantennas are patterned at densities of 160,000 devices per cm2, enabling future work on highly-multiplexed detection. Combined with advances in complex sample processing, our work provides a foundation for rapid, compact, and amplification-free molecular assays.
Source: Nature Communications
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $6,290
Funders: National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, TomKat Center for Sustainable Energy, Stanford University, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems, Stanford University Center for Innovation in Global Health, Air Force Office of Scientific Research
Awards: G1333989588, G2348990056, NNCI: nano@stanford, 2019 Waterman Award, G2521557779, OCE-PRF: Lighting up the ocean: resonant nanophotonic metasurfaces for autonomous in situ measurement of aquatic phycotoxins, NNCI: Stanford University - SNSF, SNF, MAF, EMF, G4089419421, G5442025106, Nano-optical reporters of dynamic mechanotransduction in the immune system, G5964734102, G8065195062, Stanford Molecular Imaging Scholars (SMIS) Program
OpenAlex ID: W3205935693