Carbon nanotube transistors orders of magnitude better at spotting cancer, say bioengineers
February 21, 2013
Carbon nanotube field-effect transistor coupled to engineered antibody element for detecting prostate cancer (credit: University of Pennsylvania)
Mitchell Lerner at the University of Pennsylvania and associates have revealed a technique that uses an array of carbon nanotube transistors on a silicon chip to detect a biomarker of prostate cancer known as osteopontin (OPN), The Physics arXiv Blog reports.
The transistor can detect OPN at concentrations of 1 picogram per milliliter — a concentration three orders of magnitude weaker than ELISA can manage. ELISA is the state of the art technique for spotting OPN.
The carbon nanotube transistors can be made sensitive to other diseases, including Lyme disease and Salmonella.
Functionalization scheme for OPN attachment (credit: Mitchell B. Lerner et al./arXiv)
References:
- Mitchell B. Lerner et al., Detecting Lyme Disease Using Antibody-Functionalized Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Transistors, arXiv, 2013, arxiv.org/abs/1302.2961
- Mitchell B. Lerner et al., A Carbon Nanotube Immunosensor for Salmonella, arXiv, 2013, arxiv.org/abs/1302.2959
- Mitchell B. Lerner et al., Hybrids of a Genetically Engineered Antibody and a Carbon Nanotube Transistor for Detection of Prostate Cancer Biomarkers,arXiv, 2013, arxiv.org/abs/1302.2958
Comments (5)
by Danilo da Silva
“Cyborgization” seems to be much more difficult to achieve than the cure for cancer.
by melajara
Excellent! Now the usual question, WHEN will I be able to install such a detector, say in my WC?
by Gorden Russell
Are you writing from Britain, Melajara?
by SmartAndSober
Instead of waiting them to *release* the technology, melajara, I believe learning about it and build it yourself will be a better option.
Just like how countries that are boycotted by the West can still build advanced weapons, self-reliance should be the golden rule of the near-Singularity world. Cyborgization is the most important of all technologies (beside AGI), so I recommend you to work directly on that.
by SmartAndSober
The reason I said “cyborgization is the most important of all technologies” is that: if your mental capacity is improved to a extreme, you will (an analogy) not just be able to detect cancers, rather you may discover a cure for cancers.