Sara Mahshid

Metal/metal oxide nanostructures with an extended surface area are widely used in electrochemical and biochemical reactions to enhance the detection sites for biomolecules in low concentration analytes. Electrochemical techniques are known to be simple and inexpensive methods for fabrication of nanostructured electrodes such as self-organized arrays of nanotubes, alloyed nanowires and metal nanoparticles. We use highly original electrochemical deposition techniques to construct composite structures of metals, oxides and semiconductors with unique morphological characteristics. We use our sensing platform to efficiently immobilize DNA and proteins as the capturing probes to indirectly detect a wide range of biomolecules. Such sensing platforms enable the ultrasensitive analysis of nucleic acids, proteins, and small molecules.

Lab-on-chip devices provide the ability of performing the complete cycle of biological reaction on a nano scale volume of the sample solution, resulting in reliable and rapid analysis. State-of-the-art nano/microfabrication facilities we can fabricate Lab-on-Chips that integrate nano and micro scale features in one single fluidic device. Such integrated devices are capable of capturing biological substances of different dimension varying from cell, bacteria to DNA and performing direct analysis. We propose a novel lab-on-chip device with embedded nanostructured sensors for point-of-care diagnostics. The proposed device is integrated with a dielectrophoretic assisted sample delivery system for efficient concentration of the analytes from the sample solution. The ability to dynamically alter the flow through an automated flow actuation system offers the advantage of multiple steps buffer exchange and sample processing.