Grant: Strategic Projects - Group

Fast response is the most effective measure to protect the public from infectious disease outbreaks (e.g., 2003 SARS in Toronto, and bird flu in recent years) and bioterrorism (e.g., 2001 anthrax attack in the United States), and to provide early detection of toxic pollutants in our environment and of microbial contamination of our food supply. The proposed project seeks to develop a novel multiplex sensor system that is based on nanoscale field-effect transistors (involving carbon nanotubes and transparent oxide nanowalls). By deploying these nanobiosensors in public places (hospitals, schools, airports, transit systems, sporting arenas, shopping malls), this nanobiosensor system offers fast, parallel detection of multiple airborne pathogens (including viruses, bacteria, and toxins) simultaneously, thereby providing an early warning system of any dangerous substances in the air that we breathe. Our study will specifically focus on developing the general methodologies for (a) the fabrication of this nanoscale electronic sensor system based on novel nanomaterials, and (b) biofunctionalization of the transistors with appropriate receptors to capture the target pathogens of interest as whole-organisms. These methods can be generalized and extended to develop the appropriate nanobiosensors to facilitate detection of most of the common airborne viruses and environmental toxins in a typical Canadian city like Toronto or Waterloo. The proposed project will take advantage of the high surface-area-to-volume ratio and the surface structures of carbon nanotubes and transparent oxide nanostructured materials to dramatically enhance the uptake of bioreceptors, which will in turn greatly increase the detection efficiency of the biosensors. By building an array of these nanobiosensors onto a single chip, we can increase the efficiency further and provide the possibility of detecting multiple pathogens of the same or different families. By working together with our contributing partner (who is commercializing a detection system for water-borne pathogens), we provide complete sampling of both airborne and water-borne pathogens, thus offering a complete protection system against disease carriers for the public.