Electrical nanowell diagnostics sensors for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of prostate-specific antigen

Abstract

Aim: Alumina nanowell based disposable diagnostic biosensor for detecting and quantifying levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) from human serum has been designed, fabricated and tested. Materials & methods: The biosensors were designed by integrating nanoporous alumina membranes onto printed circuit board platforms, resulting in the generation of high-density nanowell arrays with gold base electrodes. The size and density of the nanowells were leveraged toward achieving sieving action for size-based exclusion of nonspecific molecules and size-based confinement of the target PSA molecules. Results & conclusion: We demonstrated PSA detection between 0.01 and 1000 ng/ml and detection and quantification of PSA from a 17 patient cohort validated using the Beckman Access system with >95% correlation.