Rapid genetic screening with high quality factor metasurfaces

Genetic analysis methods are foundational to advancing personalized and preventative medicine, accelerating disease diagnostics, and monitoring the health of organisms and ecosystems. Current nucleic acid technologies such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), next-generation sequencing (NGS), and DNA...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2022-07
Main Authors: Hu, Jack, Safir, Fareeha, Chang, Kai, Dagli, Sahil, Balch, Halleh B, Abendroth, John M, Dixon, Jefferson, Moradifar, Parivash, Dolia, Varun, Sahoo, Malaya K, Pinsky, Benjamin A, Jeffrey, Stefanie S, Lawrence, Mark, Dionne, Jennifer A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acids
Biosensors
DNA chips
Electromagnetic fields
Environmental monitoring
Fluorescence
Fragments
Gene sequencing
Metasurfaces
Nucleic acids
Physiological effects
Polymerase chain reaction
Q factors
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Target detection
Telemedicine
Wastewater
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Summary:Genetic analysis methods are foundational to advancing personalized and preventative medicine, accelerating disease diagnostics, and monitoring the health of organisms and ecosystems. Current nucleic acid technologies such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR), next-generation sequencing (NGS), and DNA microarrays rely on fluorescence and absorbance, necessitating sample amplification or replication and leading to increased processing time and cost. Here, we introduce a label-free genetic screening platform based on high quality (high-Q) factor silicon nanoantennas functionalized with monolayers of nucleic acid fragments. Each nanoantenna exhibits substantial electromagnetic field enhancements with sufficiently localized fields to ensure isolation from neighboring resonators, enabling dense biosensor integration. We quantitatively detect complementary target sequences using DNA hybridization simultaneously for arrays of sensing elements patterned at densities of 160,000 pixels per cm\(^2\). In physiological buffer, our nanoantennas exhibit average resonant quality factors of 2,200, allowing detection of two gene fragments, SARS-CoV-2 envelope (E) and open reading frame 1b (ORF1b), down to femtomolar concentrations. We also demonstrate high specificity sensing in clinical nasopharyngeal eluates within 5 minutes of sample introduction. Combined with advances in biomarker isolation from complex samples (e.g., mucus, blood, wastewater), our work provides a foundation for rapid, compact, amplification-free and high throughput multiplexed genetic screening assays spanning medical diagnostics to environmental monitoring.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.2110.07862