Cornell researchers Prof. Margaret Frey, Prof. Antje Baeumner, Prashant Kakad, and Dapeng Li have incorporated biotin into nanofibers to create a novel sensor fabric that can be used to detect pathogens such as e-coli and bird flu as well as hazardous chemicals.
A biosensor typically consists of three basic components: a biorecognition element which captures an analyte of interest (e.g., an analyte-specific DNA oligomer), a transducer which converts biological events into perceptible signals (e.g., an optical compound which changes color or fluoresces), and an output system which amplifies the signal (e.g., dye-entrapping liposomes covalently attached with oligonucleotides that are complementary to the target sequence or the reporter probe).
A wide array of biosensors have been developed utilizing the rapid, specific, and strong binding between biotin and streptavidin. In most cases, streptavidin is applied to a substrate material surface and subsequently coated with a biotinylated biorecognition agent used to capture specific target analytes (e.g., bacteria, virus, etc.). The sensitivity of these biosensors is limited by the efficiency of the biorecognition agent and the number of biorecognition sites available for interacting with the target analyte, and the number of biorecognition sites available is directly related to the surface area of the sensor substrate.
Cornell’s technology greatly increases the sensitivity of biotin-based biosensors by replacing the typical planar substrate used with a mat of electrospun nanofibers thereby taking advantage of the ultrahigh surface area offered by electrospun nanofibers and vastly increasing the number of biorecognition sites available for biosensing. To create this ultrahigh surface area substrate, biotin is immobilized into nanofibers via electrospinning. The immobilized biotin serves as the active sites for capturing streptavidin through the specific binding mechanism. While leaving one binding site to be captured by biotin immobilized onto the nanofiber membrane substrate, streptavidin has three more binding sites left to bind with biotinylated oligonucleotide molecules that can hybridize with the target DNA or RNA in the analyte of interest, and therefore enable the biosensing function.
Patent: 7,485,591 has been granted for the technology which is available for licensing.
For More Information: Scott Macfarlane
Senior Technology Commercialization & Liaison Officer
E-mail: ssm8@cornell.edu Phone: (607) 254-2330
Senior Technology Commercialization & Liaison Officer
E-mail: ssm8@cornell.edu Phone: (607) 254-2330
