Novel Acoustic Wave (AW)

About

Background Acoustic wave (AW) devices are mass-sensitive transducers in which the changes occurring at the transducer surface can be followed by measuring the change in resonant behavior using quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). Recently, cell-based biosensors have been developed where living cells are attached to the gold surface of the quartz crystal and served as the intelligent integrated biological sensing elements. However, commercially developed AW devices with fixed crystal frequencies are not designed or optimized for use with living cells since they only characterize a single mechanical states of the cells. Technology Researchers at UMass Lowell have developed NanocanaryTM, a new AW device with novel circuitry for driving a piezoelectric acoustic wave device under the highly damped load of a fluid. It is capable of simultaneously driving the crystal at multiple frequencies. This biosensor characterizes the mechanical as well as visco-elastic properties of the cells. Frequency dependent responses of the oscillator can be used to obtain more detailed diagnostics of the status of the cell in response to drugs, toxins, pathogens etc. The above device and its application in detecting toxicity of carbon nanotubes in macrophages has been published (Wang G et al., particle & Fibre Toxicology) Also, the above device has been shown to detect very rapidly the mitochondrial depolarization transition produced by sodium azide, predictive of subsequent apoptosis. Advantages These cell-based biosensors can be ultra-sensitive in detecting any changes in cytoskeletal structure or at cell organelle levels as it measures changes in its mass and visco-elastic properties The device is small, portable, and inexpensive and can be modified to a multi-well format for high throughput studies. Any kind of cells can be used (ex. Human malignant cells for which chemotherapeutics are being tested) in this ultra-sensitive label-free detection technology. Any situation or agent that will adversely affect the viability of a human cell can be sensed. The read out from the live cell biosensor is in real time and changes can be detected much earlier compared to conventional methods. The device can be used in public places for environment monitoring. Using multiple kinds of cells in the matrix can mimic a human body for the real-time detection of any toxic threat present.