Mechano-biochemistry

The emergence of microfabricated cantilever sensors, which can directly translate molecular recognition binding events into a nanomechanical response, offers a highly sensitive method to detect chemical and biological molecules. This novel nano-mechanical actuation mechanism has important advantages because it requires no sample labelling and so analytes can be detected in a single step reaction. Furthermore these miniaturised sensors are highly suitable for parallelization into integrated, portable devices and the first microarray of levers for multiple DNA detection has recently been demonstrated. The goal of our research is to explore the versatility of this new sensing mechanism, probing systems of growing complexity; from small molecule binding interactions, through to DNA, protein and cancer cell studies. Central to this work is the delicate interplay between surface chemistry and mechanics and current efforts are focused on developing a fundamental understanding of surface stress at the solid-liquid interface. Novel surface chemistries and polymer coatings are being explored in order to enhance the surface stress signal. Also different cantilever geometries, material properties, actuation and detection methods will be discussed.