SBIR TOPIC 252 - NANOPILLAR PLATFORM FOR IMPROVING CANCER DIAGNOSIS

Cancer biomarker detection and cancer proteomics and genomics research require analysis platforms that provide high sensitivity and high throughput. In phase I, we will develop a novel nano-enabled sensing platform that is based on metal nanopillar patterned surface on a continuous Au thin film. This platform provides dramatic sensitivity increase through the combination of fluorescent enhancement associated with the local fields around the silver nanopillars and the highly efficient radiative properties of the surface plasmon from the underlying Au film. Appropriate surface chemistry will be developed for functionalizing the nanopillar surface for biomolecule immobilization. Application of this nano-enabled sensing platform for early cancer diagnosis will be demonstrated by detection of multiple low abundance cancer biomarkers. The outcome of this proposed project will provide scientific communities in biological and biomedical field a reliable, ready-to-use platform to fabricate high quality and sensitive microarrays/biochips, which overcome all the major limitations of existing substrates yet will be entirely compatible with existing array fabrication, bioassay and analysis infrastructure. In addition, the technology and the nano-enabled sensing and high throughput platform will find a wide range of applications, such as new types of biosensor transducers and as high sensitive microarray substrates for proteomics and genomics research.