Nanowerk‘s Michael Berger is reporting on the efforts by two groups of investigators (one from University of Massachusetts, and the other from Georgia Institute of Technology) to develop a sensor array, based on nanotechnology, that will be able to detect specific protein markers of cancers or other diseases. In fact, these scientists have already published their research in the April issue of Nature Nanotechnology, where they’ve described “”chemical nose’ sensors.”
From the abstract:
A sensor array containing six non-covalent gold nanoparticle-fluorescent polymer conjugates has been created to detect, identify and quantify protein targets. The polymer fluorescence is quenched by gold nanoparticles; the presence of proteins disrupts the nanoparticle-polymer interaction, producing distinct fluorescence response patterns. These patterns are highly repeatable and are characteristic for individual proteins at nanomolar concentrations, and can be quantitatively differentiated by linear discriminant analysis (LDA).
To learn more about the sensor array, head on to: Developing nanotechnology noses to ‘smell’ cancer @ Nanowerk…