Final Report Summary - ECNANO (Electrochemistry in fluidic nanodevices: From fundamentals to integrated sensor platforms)
Real-time, massively parallel biosensing platforms for, e.g. point-of-care diagnostics can in principle be realized by combining all-electrical detection techniques with low-cost integrated electronics. While remarkable successes have been achieved in niche areas, bioelectronics has so far failed to deliver a generic, broadly applicable biosensing platform. Research in the ECnano project aimed at overcoming this hurdle by exploring alternate ways in which chemical information about a complex sample can be extracted using only nanoscale electrical probes. We developed nanogap sensors consisting of closely-spaced electrodes embedded in a nanofluidic channel. Electrochemical reactions in these devices are so efficient that we were able to demonstrate the detection of single molecules in water, making our nanogaps the most sensitive microfabricated electrochemical transducers to date. We also explored high-frequency electrical detection at arrays of separately addressable nanoelectrodes, measurements which are only possible by incorporating the nanoelectrodes into state-of-the-art CMOS microelectronics chips developed by our industrial partner. Here we showed that it is possible not only to detect, but also to obtain an “electrical fingerprint” of objects as small as individual viruses.