Home > Press > New photonic sensor opens the door to high-speed biodetection
Photograph of a fluid meniscus inside an opto-mechano-fluidic resonator (OMFR) made of high purity silica glass. Particles flowing through the internal microchannel can be detected optically at extremely high speed. CREDIT: University of Illinois |
Abstract:
Researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new technique for extremely high speed photonic sensing of the mechanical properties of freely flowing particles using an opto-mechano-fluidic resonator (OMFR). This research potentially opens up completely new mechanical "axes of measurement" on micro/nanoparticles and bioparticles.
"It is known that diseases such as cancers and anemia can correlate with mechanical properties of cells such as compressibility and viscoelasticity, but these properties are not used diagnostically due to absence of tools with enough speed and sensitivity to perform the measurement," explained Gaurav Bahl, an assistant professor of mechanical science and engineering at Illinois. "Because of this, we have a substantial knowledge-gap, and have barely scratched the surface of understanding of how diseases modify the mechanical properties of cells in our body. Developing knowledge around the mechanics of cells and bioparticles can help us understand the mobility of these micro-objects throughout the human body, about how tumors form, about how cells and bacteria can propagate through us, how diseases spread, and more."
High-speed optical detection methods, such as flow cytometry, are routinely used for analysis of large populations of particles through measurements of their optical properties, with analysis speeds approaching 50,000 particles/second. Optical sensors, however, cannot directly measure any mechanical properties of the particles (such as mass, density, compressibility, stiffness, etc). Until now, mechanical sensors have not approached the speed of optical flow cytometers, which makes routine measurements on large cell populations simply impractical.
"In this study, we aimed to blend the best features of optical sensing, i.e. the extremely high bandwidth and sensitivity, with mechanical sensing which gives us the ability to measure mechanical properties," stated Kewen Han, a doctoral candidate and first author of the paper appearing in the June 2016 edition of Optica. "To achieve this, we have developed a new microfluidic opto-mechanical device that optically detects the mechanical perturbations created by individual microparticles flowing through the fluidic channel at very high speed.
Using bakers' yeast and two types of microbeads, the researchers explored the particle-sensing capabilities of the OMFR.
"The OMFR's multimode sensing capability permits measurement of multiple particles with redundancy, and indicates future potential for inertial imaging," Han said. "The system also detects mechanical energy loss associated with individual particles, likely related to viscoelastic properties of the soft material and boundary loss at interface of particle and liquid."
"We have shown that our technique is sensitive to the density and compressibility of each individual particle as it passes by," Bahl added. "The smallest detectable particle as reported in this work is around 660 nm.
"This work presents a new approach to perform resonantly enhanced optical sensing of freely flowing particles through the action of long-range phonons that extend between solid and fluid phases of the sensor and sample."
####
For more information, please click here
Contacts:
Gaurav Bahl
217-300-2194
Copyright © University of Illinois College of Engineering
If you have a comment, please Contact us.Issuers of news releases, not 7th Wave, Inc. or Nanotechnology Now, are solely responsible for the accuracy of the content.
Related Links |
Related News Press |
News and information
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Good as gold - improving infectious disease testing with gold nanoparticles April 5th, 2024
Cancer
New micromaterial releases nanoparticles that selectively destroy cancer cells April 5th, 2024
Imaging
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
The USTC realizes In situ electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy using single nanodiamond sensors November 3rd, 2023
Possible Futures
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
With VECSELs towards the quantum internet Fraunhofer: IAF achieves record output power with VECSEL for quantum frequency converters April 5th, 2024
Nanomedicine
New micromaterial releases nanoparticles that selectively destroy cancer cells April 5th, 2024
Good as gold - improving infectious disease testing with gold nanoparticles April 5th, 2024
Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024
Sensors
Discoveries
Chemical reactions can scramble quantum information as well as black holes April 5th, 2024
New micromaterial releases nanoparticles that selectively destroy cancer cells April 5th, 2024
Utilizing palladium for addressing contact issues of buried oxide thin film transistors April 5th, 2024
Announcements
NRL charters Navy’s quantum inertial navigation path to reduce drift April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Interviews/Book Reviews/Essays/Reports/Podcasts/Journals/White papers/Posters
Simulating magnetization in a Heisenberg quantum spin chain April 5th, 2024
Discovery points path to flash-like memory for storing qubits: Rice find could hasten development of nonvolatile quantum memory April 5th, 2024
Tools
Ferroelectrically modulate the Fermi level of graphene oxide to enhance SERS response November 3rd, 2023
The USTC realizes In situ electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy using single nanodiamond sensors November 3rd, 2023
Nanobiotechnology
New micromaterial releases nanoparticles that selectively destroy cancer cells April 5th, 2024
Good as gold - improving infectious disease testing with gold nanoparticles April 5th, 2024
Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life March 8th, 2024
Photonics/Optics/Lasers
With VECSELs towards the quantum internet Fraunhofer: IAF achieves record output power with VECSEL for quantum frequency converters April 5th, 2024
Nanoscale CL thermometry with lanthanide-doped heavy-metal oxide in TEM March 8th, 2024
Optically trapped quantum droplets of light can bind together to form macroscopic complexes March 8th, 2024
HKUST researchers develop new integration technique for efficient coupling of III-V and silicon February 16th, 2024
The latest news from around the world, FREE | ||
Premium Products | ||
Only the news you want to read!
Learn More |
||
Full-service, expert consulting
Learn More |
||