Method uses blood sample to rapidly detect testicular cancer

The team believes that ultra-thin gold nanowires can be used to electrically sense the presence of small quantities of biomarker proteins found in the bodies of men suffering from certain forms of testicular cancer.

The sensor will pass a tiny current through the nanowire, which has been engineered to attract the human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) protein; a hormone that is secreted when a patient is suffering from testicular cancer. The team hopes to be able to detect a change in the electrical current flowing through the wire when HCG proteins attach themselves to it.

Dr Kevin Critchley, project leader from Leeds University’s department of physics and astronomy, told The Engineer that gold nanowires with the required 3nm diameter could be produced relatively easily in a beaker through a simple chemical reaction.

‘We use gold chloride with a solvent called alkylamine,’ he said. ‘The gold chloride will very slowly reduce to gold metal while the alkylamine acts as a kind of template that makes these very small wires that are only several microns in length.’