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Fully Automated Centrifugal Microfluidic Device for Ultrasensitive Protein Detection from Whole Blood
Published on: April 16, 2016
Highly sensitive detection of physiological spins in a microfluidic device.
Florestan C Ziem1, Nicolas S Götz, Andrea Zappe
13rd Institute of Physics and Research Center SCOPE, University Stuttgart , Stuttgart 70569, Germany.
Nano Letters
|August 6, 2013
Summary
Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond enable sensitive detection of paramagnetic species like manganese ions and ferritin proteins. This breakthrough advances chemical analytics and cell biology under physiological conditions.
Area of Science:
- Quantum sensing
- Nanoscale magnetic field detection
- Biochemical analytics
Background:
- Sensing paramagnetic species is crucial for chemical analytics, cell biology, and medical sciences.
- Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond act as atom-sized probes for magnetic fields at submicrometer scales.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate the use of NV center spin relaxation for sensing paramagnetic species.
- To quantify the sensitivity for detecting manganese(II) ions and ferritin proteins.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing an ensemble nitrogen-vacancy (NV) sensor in diamond.
- Measuring spin relaxation changes induced by paramagnetic species.
- Operating under ambient physiological conditions.
Main Results:
- Successfully sensed adsorbed and freely diffusing manganese(II) ions.
- Detected adsorbed ferritin proteins.
- Achieved sensitivities of approximately 175 Mn ions and 10 ferritin proteins per diffraction-limited spot.
Conclusions:
- Ensemble NV sensors provide a powerful tool for detecting paramagnetic species at the nanoscale.
- The demonstrated sensitivity opens new avenues for biological and chemical sensing applications.
- This technique is suitable for operation under physiological conditions.
