BioFinger points to disease

A portable, versatile and low-cost molecular detection tool being developed by a team of European researchers promises to advance the diagnosis of diseases such as cancer and open up new applications in sectors as diverse as environmental protection, chemical analysis and food safety.

Working in the field of micro- and nano-technologies, the IST programme-funded BioFinger project is due to begin testing its system over the summer amid expectations for a commercial product to be available on the market within two to three years.

“What we are creating is a generic, highly precise and highly versatile tool to detect and analyse molecules in the blood and other fluids using nano and micro cantilevers,” explains project co-ordinator Joan Bausells at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas in Spain.

Nanocantilevers, smaller than the surface of a fly’s eye, and their larger counterparts microcantilevers, function as sensors to detect molecules providing in the medical world, for example, a way to rapidly and accurately diagnose disease. When coated with antibodies they bend and resonate to changes in surface tension and mass when fluids containing disease-related protein molecules attach to them. By seeing whether or not the cantilevers react, doctors would be able to determine whether or not a disease is present.