Ultra-sensitive biosensor could accelerate disease diagnosis

It is claimed the advance could change early disease detection in a point-of-care setting and reduce test result waiting times from weeks to minutes.

Stephen Arnold, university professor of applied physics and member of the Othmer-Jacobs Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and researchers of NYU-Poly’s MicroParticle PhotoPhysics Laboratory for BioPhotonics (MP³L) reported their findings in the most recent issue of Applied Physics Letters.

According to a statement, their technique is a major advance in a series of experiments to devise a diagnostic method sensitive enough to detect and size a single virus particle in a doctor’s office or field clinic, without the need for special assay preparations or conditions. Normally, such assessment requires the virus to be measured in the vacuum environment of an electron microscope, which adds time, complexity and cost.

Instead, the researchers were able to detect the smallest RNA virus particle MS2, with a mass of six attograms, by amplifying the sensitivity of a biosensor.