Throughout the ROBOT Sensing project, we have made significant process in fundamental science and applied research. We leveraged DNA nanotechnology to fabricate reconfigurable bio-nano hybrid nanostructures, and we could obtain groundbreaking optical activity. We established unique know-how on the reliable and sustainable fabrication of these bio-nano hybrid nanostructures and evaluated the scaled production and development cycle, highlighting three main advantages: 1. low production costs, 2. fast development cycle, 3. global sustainable production potential, to enable this innovation to be translated into a nanobiosensing device.
We also developed and evaluated our novel nanobiosensing scheme based on reconfigurable features in the bio-nano hybrid nanostructures, i.e. the reconfigurable mechanism of the nanostructure dynamically in response to various stimuli, such as different classes of biomolecules, including proteins, nucleic acids, and small molecules. The effective detection ensures its further use in detecting protein antigens and nucleic acid markers for disease screening, or specific antibodies against the target disease for evaluating the immune response. This rapid detection approach have advantages in 1. One-step detection, 2. Fast sample-to-result, enabling ease of use for the general public. It can effectively work with different biomedical samples, such as blood, without sample pre-processing or labor-intensive procedures. The ability to integrate the nanostructures on the surface as a bio-nano hybrid metasurface significantly boosts the detection sensitivity.
