Faculty Bibliography

Aptamer biosensors have been immobilized on beads, introduced into micromachined chips on the electronic tongue sensor array, and used for the detection and quantitation of proteins. Aptamer chips could detect proteins in both capture and sandwich assay formats. Unlike most protein-based arrays, the aptamer chips could be stripped and reused multiple times. The aptamer chips proved to be useful for screening aptamers from in vitro selection experiments and for sensitively quantitating the biothreat agent ricin.

The development of a micromachined fluidic structure for the introduction of liquid samples into a chip-based sensor composed of an array of polymeric microbeads is presented. The micromachined structure consists of micromachined storage cavities combined with a covering glass layer that confines the microbeads and fluidic channels. In our sensor array, transduction occurs via optical changes to receptors or/and indicator molecules that are attached to the polymeric microbeads. Hence, the confining structures must also allow optical access to the microbeads. The fabrication process has been selected to protect receptors or/and indicator molecules that may be sensitive to the normal processes used in chip fabrication. One of the key parts of the structure is a passive fluid introduction system driven only by capillary force. This simple means of fluid introduction realizes a compact device. The capillary flow on the inlet channel has been studied, and the responses of the microbeads to the liquid sample have been characterized. The test results show that this system may be useful in a micro-total-analysis-system (mu-TAS) and biomedical applications.

While prior studies have revealed enhanced stability of Y0.6Ca0.4Ba1.6La0.4Cu3O7-delta relative to YBa2Cu3O7-delta, this stabilization was brought about only at the expense of lower transition temperatures (T(C)similar to80 versus 92 K). Similar prior attempts to optimize simultaneously both superconductivity properties and chemical stability with substitution only at the rare-earth site in REBa2Cu3O7 (RE=Y, Eu, Gd, etc.) resulted in little alteration of the observed reactivity/processability characteristics. In this letter, the corrosion reactivity of REBa2Cu3O7 (RE=Y, Eu, Nd) and Y0.6Ca0.4Ba1.6La0.4Cu3O7-delta are examined. An unusually strong stabilization was noted for NdBa2Cu3O7+/-delta (T(C,onset)greater than or equal to92 K). This corrosion behavior for the RE=Nd phase is rationalized in terms of a structural model. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

The development of a chip-based sensor array composed of individually addressable agarose microbeads has been demonstrated for the rapid detection of DNA oligonucleotides. Here, a "plug and play" approach allows for the simple incorporation of various biotinylated DNA capture probes into the bead-microreactors, which are derivatized in each case with avidin docking sites. The DNA capture probe containing microbeads are selectively arranged in micromachined cavities localized on silicon wafers. The microcavities possess trans-wafer openings, which allow for both fluid flow through the microreactors/analysis chambers and optical access to the chemically sensitive microbeads. Collectively, these features allow the identification and quantitation of target DNA analytes to occur in near real time using fluorescence changes that accompany binding of the target sample. The unique three-dimensional microenvironment within the agarose bead and the microfluidics capabilities of the chip structure afford a fully integrated package that fosters rapid analyses of solutions containing complex mixtures of DNA oligomers. These analyses can be completed at room temperature through the use of appropriate hybridization buffers. For applications requiring analysis of < or = 10(2) different DNA sequences, the hybridization times and point mutation selectivity factors exhibited by this bead array method exceed in many respects the operational characteristics of the commonly utilized planar DNA chip technologies. The power and utility of this microbead array DNA detection methodology is demonstrated here for the analysis of fluids containing a variety of similar 18-base oligonucleotides. Hybridization times on the order of minutes with point mutation selectivity factors greater than 10000 and limit of detection values of approximately 10(-13) M are obtained readily with this microbead array system.

The development of miniaturized chromatographic systems localized within individual polymer microspheres and their incorporation into a bead-based cross-reactive sensor array platform is reported. The integrated chromatographic and detection concept is based on the creation of distinct functional layers within the microspheres. In this first example of the new methodology, complexing ligands have been selectively immobilized to create "separation" layers harboring an affinity for various metal cations. Additionally, a broadly responsive compleximetric dye is used to yield the "detection" layers that exhibit optical responses in the presence of a wide range of metal cations. Information concerning the identities and concentrations of solution-dissolved metal cations can be drawn from the temporal properties of the beads' optical responses. Varying the nature of the ligand in the separation shell yields a collection of cross-reactive sensing elements well-suited for use in array-based micrototal analysis systems. Accordingly, such beads have been incorporated into the "Electronic Taste Chip" platform and used for discriminating among aqueous metal cation solutions.

Herein we report the combination of a library of resin-bound sensors along with a multicomponent sensor array. This novel combinatorial array sensor system shows selectivity for nucleotide phosphates in solution. The design of the anchored receptor includes a 1,3,5-trisubstituted-2,4,6-triethylbenzene scaffold coupled with peptide libraries. Each chemosensor is placed into a micromachined cavity within a silicon wafer, and the optical changes observed by a charged-coupled device result in near-real-time digital analysis of solutions. A colorimetric displacement assay was performed, and time-dependent imaging studies of the selected sensing ensembles result in a differential responses upon addition of adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP), adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP), or guanosine 5'-triphosphate (GTP). An advantage to this approach is that it creates an array of sensors that gives a fingerprint response for each analyte. Principal component analysis indicates that the library of chemosensors can differentiate between ATP, GTP, and AMP. On the basis of factor loading values, individual sensors from the library were sequenced to elucidate their chemical composition.

The development of multianalyte sensing schemes by combining indicator-displacement assays with artificial neural network analysis (ANN) for the evaluation of calcium and citrate concentrations in flavored vodkas is presented. This work follows a previous report where an array-less approach was used for the analysis of unknown solutions containing the structurally similar analytes, tartrate and malate. Herein, a two component sensor suite consisting of a synthetic host and the commercially available complexometric dye, xylenol orange, was created. Differential UV–Visible spectral responses result for solutions containing various concentrations of calcium and citrate. The quantitation of the relative calcium and citrate concentrations in unknown mixtures of flavored vodka samples was determined through ANN analysis. The calcium and citrate concentrations in the flavored vodka samples provided by the sensor suite and the ANN methodology described here are compared to values reported by NMR of the same flavored vodkas. We expect that this multianalyte sensing scheme may have potential applications for the analysis of other complex fluids.