In the making of SiNW FETs for prostate cancer diagnostics

Highly sensitive electrical detection of biomarkers for the early stage screening of cancer is desired for future, ultrafast diagnostic platforms. In the case of prostate cancer (PCa), the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is of prime interest and its detection in combination with other PCa-relevant biomarkers in a multiplex approach is advised. Toward this goal, we demonstrate the label-free, potentiometric detection of PSA with silicon nanowire ion-sensitive field-effect transistor (Si NW-ISFET) arrays. The platform was used for quantitative detection of PSA using DNA aptamers as recognition elements. In the future, our platform could be utilized to detect multiple biomarkers in one assay to obtain more reliable cancer diagnostic information.

Read more: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsomega.8b00990