Porous silicon cantiliver for DNA immobilization and detection

In this project, we employ a microcantilever based mechanical transduction DNA detection approach. We believe that the method to traduce and amplify signal has much wider implications for many binding assays in chemistry and biology, such as that in immunoassay. The core idea is to measure the bending and the stress of a microcantilever induced by DNA hybridization. A porous polysilicon cantilever is used to simultaneously immobilize and detect DNA. Mechanical simulations are needed to study the mechanical behavior of the porous cantilever prior to manufacturing and conducting biological testing.