Posted: July 14, 2006

Development of a protein chip based biosensor

(Nanowerk News) With the support from the Chinese Academy of Sciences "Knowledge Innovation Program" and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, a research group led by Prof. JIN Gang from the National Microgravity Laboratory at the CAS Institute of Mechanics has succeeded in developing a protein-chip-based biosensor.
The research feat is considered up to the international advanced level by an expert panel at the evaluation meeting held on June 5.
The kernel technology of the new microarray, called ProteinChips, is a new protein analytic system with the advantage of integrated, parallel, fast and automatic analysis. It is a label-free technique that can be used to detect biomolecules and investigate biomolecule interaction with biological micro-samples. With the novel progress in chip surface modification and biomedical application, it is not only a qualitative, but also a quantitative way for protein interaction determination. It is also able to obtain dynamic data of protein interaction process, such as interaction rates and conditions, with real time detection. The technology so far has filed for more than 20 patents.
The technology is of significance for testing SARS virus, and diagnosing early breast cancers, cardiovascular diseases and the hepatitis B surface antigen.
Take the testing of five indexes in hepatitis B patients as an example, it only takes about 40 minutes to get the results instead of one day with a conventional approach.
Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences