Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Detection of airborne fungi using biosensors based on carbon nanotube-field effect transistors

3^rd International Conference on Nanotek & Expo

December 02-04, 2013 Hampton Inn Tropicana, Las Vegas, NV, USA

Jinman Kim, Taejin Jeon, Minjun Park, Joon-Hyung Jin, Byung Yang Lee and Jong-Ryeul Sohn

Posters: J Nanomed Nanotechnol

Abstract:

Airborne particles contain fungi that can cause several diseases such as allergies and human asthma. Especially, Aspergillus niger is known as one of the most frequently-observed allergenic antigens. Although the conventional Aspergillus detection method based on the sequential process of collection, culturing and DNA sequencing or immunoassay shows excellent sensitivity to the Aspergillus species, the process is highly labor-intensive and time-consuming. In this work, single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT)-integrated field effect transistors (FET) were fabricated and employed to the rapid detection of Aspergillus niger in real time with high sensitivity. The amount of the specific primary antibody of Aspergillus niger was carefully determined using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Then, the antibody was covalently immobilized on the SWNT channel using conventional EDC/NHS chemistry. The FET current increase was observed with sequential adding of a concentrated solution of Aspergillus on the antibody-immobilized SWNT-FET, showing high sensitivity and selectivity. Our study will be of great importance for the health care and environment monitoring of elderly people and children which are more vulnerable to allergy disease.

Biography :

Taejin Jeon has been working for the school of mechanical engineering in Korea University.