Electronic field effect detection of SARS-CoV-2 N-protein before the onset of symptoms

I Novodchuk; M Kayaharman; I Prassas; A Soosaipillai; R Karimi; I A Goldthorpe; E Abdel-Rahman; J Sanderson; E P Diamandis; M Bajcsy; M Yavuz

doi:10.1016/j.bios.2022.114331

Electronic field effect detection of SARS-CoV-2 N-protein before the onset of symptoms

Biosens Bioelectron. 2022 Aug 15:210:114331. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2022.114331. Epub 2022 Apr 29.

Authors

I Novodchuk¹, M Kayaharman², I Prassas³, A Soosaipillai³, R Karimi⁴, I A Goldthorpe², E Abdel-Rahman⁵, J Sanderson⁴, E P Diamandis⁶, M Bajcsy⁷, M Yavuz⁸

Affiliations

¹ Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada; Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada. Electronic address: inovodch@uwaterloo.ca.
² Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
³ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada.
⁴ Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁵ Dept. of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁶ Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada; Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
⁷ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada; Institute for Quantum Computing, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
⁸ Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada; Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN), University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.

Abstract

As part of the efforts to contain the pandemic, researchers around the world have raced to develop testing platforms to detect the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Within the different detection platforms studied, the field effect transistor (FET) is a promising device due to its high sensitivity and fast detection capabilities. In this work, a graphene-based FET which uses a boron and nitrogen co-doped graphene oxide gel (BN-GO gel) transducer functionalized with nucleoprotein antibodies, has been investigated for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N)-protein in buffer. This biosensor was able to detect the viral protein in less than 4 min, with a limit of detection (LOD) as low as 10 ag/mL and a wide linear detection range stretching over 11 orders of magnitude from 10 ag/mL-1 μg/mL. This represents the lowest LOD and widest detection range of any COVID-19 sensor and thus can potentially enable the detection of infected individuals before they become contagious. In addition to its potential use in the COVID-19 pandemic, our device serves as a proof-of-concept of the ability of functionalized BN-GO gel FETs to be used for ultrasensitive yet robust biosensors.

Keywords: Biosensor; Covid-19; FET; Graphene.

MeSH terms

Biosensing Techniques*
COVID-19* / diagnosis
Electronics
Humans
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2