Abstract
The ultra-high frequency EMPAS (electromagnetic piezoelectric acoustic sensor) device is composed of an electrode-less quartz disc in which shear oscillation is induced by an AC-powered magnetic coil located 30 μm below the substrate. This configuration allows the instigation of high acoustic harmonics (in the region of 49th–53rd), with the resulting enhanced analytical sensitivity for biosensor purposes compared to the conventional thickness-shear mode device. In this paper, we introduce significant improvements to the operation of the system with respect to sensing applications. This includes a new interface program and the capability to measure the acoustic quality factor not available in the prototype version. The enhanced configuration is subject to testing through biosensor detection of surface adsorption of biological macromolecules, which include β-casein, and a gelsolin-actin complex.
Highlights
Biosensor technology continues to attract significant interest with respect to the assay of biochemical species, especially in the medical care field [1,2,3]
These include the well-known thickness-shear mode sensor (TSM), often referred to as the quartz crystal microbalance [5], and devices based on shear horizontal surface acoustic waves [6] and love wave propagation [7]
The latter are the proteins, actin and gelsolin which are involved in the assay of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a biomarker for this form of cancer [24,25,26]
Summary
Biosensor technology continues to attract significant interest with respect to the assay of biochemical species, especially in the medical care field [1,2,3] In this regard, such measurement by various types of acoustic wave-based sensor has figured prominently [4]. The improved configuration is tested through measurement of responses to non-specific surface adsorption of β-casein, a major protein component of milk, [23] and molecular reagents employed for the detection of ovarian cancer The latter are the proteins, actin and gelsolin which are involved in the assay of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), a biomarker for this form of cancer [24,25,26]. Surfaceattached gelsolin is a probe for LPA and a method of assay has been developed based on replacement of fluorescent-labelled actin from the probe [27]
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