Fast Detection of Viruses – Nanobio Research at CRANN
Nanobiotechnology is the research focus for Prof Martin Hegner, Principal Investigator in CRANN (www.crann.tcd.ie) and Professor in the School of Physics, TCD. This discipline combines biology and physics in the invention of tools and instruments for analysing biological information, such as viruses. Nanobiotechnology is likely to have a significant impact on our daily lives in the near future, translating laboratory research into products that will revolutionise healthcare.
Prof. Hegner’s team are developing a platform technology for the fast detection of viruses in liquid environments through research that is funded under an SFI Principal Investigator award. Prof Hegner and a team of international colleagues have developed micron-sized cantilever arrays (a series of tiny diving-board-like silicon sensors) that vibrate and bend in response to mass loading forces. The arrays are coated with miniscule amounts of membrane proteins and when these bind to viruses in fluids, forces are exerted. By measuring changes in the frequencies at which these tiny sensors vibrate, researchers use them as super-sensitive virus-weighing scales. These nanomechanical silicon sensors have been shown to detect the presence of viruses in liquid environments within minutes. This research was published in Nature Nanotechnology in 2009.
Prof. Martin Hegner
Prof. Hegner’s cantilevers offer potential for the fast detection of both illnesses and hazardous microbes or contamination. There are thus opportunities for commercial exploitation in the food, medical, health and pharmaceutical sectors. To put it in context, take last year's 'swine flu' virus. Detection using Hegner’s nanomechanical virus sensors could report within minutes whether the virus was present in a patient’s sample, rather than the hours taken with current laboratory methods. This platform technology could also enable viable microbes with antibiotic resistance in a hospital environment (e.g., MRSA) to be detected within minutes, enabling specific treatment at an earlier stage of a patient’s illness, thus improving overall patient outcomes.
Prof Hegner’s methodology could also be used by pharmaceutical manufacturers of liquid drugs. For example, manufacturers of eye droplets currently have to perform repetitive quality and safety tests prior to release of the droplets into the market. These tests can take weeks, but by using Hegner’s specific sensitised sensors the presence of viable microbial contaminations can be reported within a couple of hours, thus reducing the delay in shipping eye droplets to market and reducing costs.
