Construction of AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor-based biosensor for ultrasensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins and virions

Chenyang Yang; Jianwen Sun; Yulong Zhang; Jingya Tang; Zizheng Liu; Teng Zhan; Dian-Bing Wang; Guoqi Zhang; Zewen Liu; Xian-En Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.bios.2024.116171

Construction of AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor-based biosensor for ultrasensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins and virions

Biosens Bioelectron. 2024 Mar 15:257:116171. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2024.116171. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chenyang Yang¹, Jianwen Sun², Yulong Zhang², Jingya Tang¹, Zizheng Liu³, Teng Zhan⁴, Dian-Bing Wang⁵, Guoqi Zhang⁶, Zewen Liu⁷, Xian-En Zhang⁸

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Biomacromolecules (CAS), National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, CAS Center for Excellence in Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100049, China.
² School of Integrated Circuits, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 10084, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Biomacromolecules (CAS), National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, CAS Center for Excellence in Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
⁴ Research and Development Center for Solid State Lighting, Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qinghua East Road 35A, Beijing, 10083, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Biomacromolecules (CAS), National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, CAS Center for Excellence in Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China. Electronic address: wangdb@moon.ibp.ac.cn.
⁶ Department of Microelectronics, Delft University of Technology, 2628, CD Delft, the Netherlands. Electronic address: G.Q.Zhang@tudelft.nl.
⁷ School of Integrated Circuits, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 10084, China. Electronic address: liuzw@tsinghua.edu.cn.
⁸ Key Laboratory of Biomacromolecules (CAS), National Laboratory of Biomacromolecules, CAS Center for Excellence in Biomacromolecules, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China; Faculty of Synthetic Biology, Shenzhen Institute of Advances Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China; University of Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, 100049, China. Electronic address: zhangxe@ibp.ac.cn.

PMID: 38636317
DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2024.116171

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for rapid and sensitive detection of SARS-CoV-2. Here, we report an ultrasensitive SARS-CoV-2 immunosensor by integration of an AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) and anti-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein antibody. The AlGaN/GaN HEMT immunosensor has demonstrated the capability to detect SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins at an impressively low concentration of 10^-22 M. The sensor was also applied to pseudoviruses and SARS-CoV-2 ΔN virions that display the Spike proteins with a single virion particle sensitivity. These features validate the potential of AlGaN/GaN HEMT biosensors for point of care tests targeting SARS-CoV-2. This research not only provides the first HEMT biosensing platform for ultrasensitive and label-free detection of SARS-CoV-2.

Keywords: AlGaN/GaN; Biosensors; Label-free; SARS-CoV-2; Ultrasensitive detection.