Posts Tagged ‘sensors’
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October 16th, 2009
More golden sensors
I’ve blogged a couple of times now about the use of gold in sensors and diagnostic devices, and have started developing a real interest in the field as a whole. I recently attended an excellent online seminar, organised by the Sensors and Instrumentation Knowledge Transfer Network, which was given by Agata Jozwicka who is a senior analyst from Frost & Sullivan. Agata presented a lot of data about the sensor field, and the opportunities generated by the ongoing miniaturisation of the technologies from macro- to micro- to nano-. I was particularly interested to see the percentage revenues generated by the various sensor types – biosensors commanded the largest single proportion of the market at ~14%, and that area of the sensor landscape is growing at 9-10% per annum. To me this shows there is real market interest and value in the area.
This observation is undoubtedly enforced by my ongoing monitoring of the literature. Nano-sensor papers are consistantly being published in some of the world’s leading journals. Only this week another gold-based sensors paper appeared in Nature Materials. The team, made up of researchers from Europe, America and Canada, have demonstrated an improvement in biosensing technology using a gold metamaterial that is capable of supporting a guided mode in a porous nanorod layer. Using this device and various optical techniques, sensors can determine very precisely the identity and amount of various substances, including extremely small compounds such as drugs, vitamins or hormones.
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October 7th, 2009
Detecting infections – rapidly
A nice article has appeared on MITs Technology Review website describing the development of a new type of sensor for the diagnosis of infections. The technology is based around attaching DNA to a gold film. Gold acts to quench the glow of a fluorescent molecule attached to one end of the DNA. The DNA stays folded over until a target genetic sequence links to it. Its unfolding results in the fluorescent molecule moving away from the gold film and glowing, which can be seen under a fluorescent microscope.
The developers of the sensor, led by Benjamin Miller of the University of Rochester Medical Centre, have high hopes for the technology and believe it could be available commercially within 3 years. They hope to broaden use of the sensor to allow detection of multiple pathogens, as well as potentially moving into screening for genetic disorders and cancer.
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October 2nd, 2009
Another gold-based diagnostics breakthrough
Researchers at the University of Toronto have just published a paper in Nature Nanotechnology detailing their use of nanomaterials to develop a microchip sensitive enough to quickly determine the type and severity of a patient’s cancer so that the disease can be detected earlier for more effective treatment.
The team, led by Dr Shana Kelley, have used gold nanowires as part of a system that allows the measurement of a range of biomolecules that can indicate the presense of cancer at the cellular level. Such technologies hold real potential in the quest to find methods to diagnose cancer at the eariest possible stage.
More details can be found here.
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September 25th, 2009
Measuring mercury with gold
The guys at AZoNanotechnology have recently published a series of thought-leadership articles from leading nanotechnology experts around the world. All of these articles are well worth a read if you get the chance, but one in particular caught my eye…
Professor Suresh Bhargava, Dean of the School of Applied Sciences at RMIT University and leader of the Industrial Chemistry Group, has written a piece on the use of nanotechnology to measure mercury. The World Gold Council is heavily involved in this area, and have recently announced funding of a project in collaboration with Chris Hardacre at the University of Belfast (see a previous blog from Richard on the announcement here). It seems that Professor Bhargava and his team have developed a gold nanoparticle-based sensor, allowing the accurate measurement of mercury. This technology is now being further developed with industrial partners for pilot plant trials…Part of this work has been published in the journal Sensors and Actuators B.
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August 26th, 2009
Gold-related publications (part 2!)
Following on from my post yesterday I was impressed to find yet more innovative gold research published in another high level chemistry journal. On this occasion the latest issue of Nature Chemistry carries two interesting gold articles, one of which even graces the front cover…
Professor Vince Rotello’s team from the University of Massachusetts have penned a fascinating paper entitled “Sensing of proteins in human serum using conjugates of nanoparticles and green fluorescent protein”, which has made the cover of this issue of Nature Chemistry for good reason. The paper describes the group’s progress in the development of a gold nanoparticle-based sensor system capable of detecting specific proteins at biorelevant concentrations in both buffer and human serum. Being able to detect protein imbalances in serum is an important tool for disease diagnosis, but complicated because it contains >20,000 different proteins at a vast range of concentrations. The science described by Rotello’s team represents highly sensitive array-based sensor system, and a significant improvement on previous polymer-based sensor arrays.
The second paper in this issue of Nature Chemistry is from the labs of Dean Toste at the University of California and William Goddard III at CalTech. They propose a bonding model for gold(1) carbene complexes, where the carbon-gold bond in the cationic intermediates comprise varying degrees of both σ- and π-bonding. The paper then describes a series of experiments that illustrate the correlation between bonding and reactivity is reflected in the yield of gold-catalysed cyclopropanation reactions.
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July 31st, 2009
Banana flavoured… Gold?!
A recent publication in Nature Chemistry led to an interesting article in the Chemistry in Industry magazine discussing the development of metals endowed with the properties of organic molecules, such as banana-flavoured gold!
The publication detailed the synthesis of palladium imprinted with the molecular structure of a chiral alkaloid. As well as potentially having useful catalytic properties, such metallo-organic materials could have wide ranging uses in a number of fields. Examples detailed in the article include loading invasive medical devices with relevant therapeutics to prevent infection or rejection, and potential in the flavours and sensors industry.
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April 23rd, 2009
Coverage in The Engineer
The Engineer has an interview with Stefan Maier, professor of nanophotonics at Imperial College who is collaborating with a team at Rice University on gold nanosensors………
Trevor Keel
Richard Holliday
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