A new chip could help in early diagnosis of cancer
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have created an acoustic sensor that can report the presence of small amounts of mesothelin, a molecule associated with a number of cancers. The ACuRay™ chip (standing for ACoustic micro-arRay) consists of a series of electrodes deposited on the surface of a thin film of zinc oxide, which allows the device to resonate, or vibrate, at a specific frequency when a current is applied.
The sensor itself, built on a base of silicon, could be mass-produced using very well known and inexpensive microelectronic fabrication techniques. To turn this array into a sensor, the researchers coated the zinc oxide surface with mesothelin-specific antibodies generated in a lab at the National Cancer Institute. These molecules are engineered versions of the antibodies the immune system creates to identify foreign intruders, such as microbial parasites.
When the mesothelin binds to an antibody, the added mass changes the frequency at which the acoustic wave passes between the electrodes on the surface of the device. The device is able to “hear” the pitch change due to nanomolar concentrations of mesothelin (just a few molecules amid billions) binding to antibodies on the chip. “We could, for example, detect a number of different markers for a single disease on a single chip no bigger than the tip of a fountain pen. With refinement, this technology could readily lead to an inexpensive, ubiquitous technology for researchers, physicians and the clinical laboratory.” said Hunt, a professor of electrical and computer at Georgia Tech and lead researcher on the project.
The findings were recently presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s second International Conference on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development.
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