Licensing opportunity
Italian researchers have developed a new kind of spintronic biosensor with the potential to detect single magnetic beads with a diameter of 80 nanometres. The patented technology is now available for licensing.
Professor Riccardo Bertacco from the Politecnico di Milano and Dr Paolo Vavassori from the CIC nanoGUNE Consolider (the Nanoscience Cooperative Research Center) have developed a spintronic biosensor that opens the way for single-molecule detection, immobilisation and handling for use in synthetic biology.
The advantages of this system, according to the researchers, include that it produces a straightforward electronic signal, without the need for bulky optical systems, and that it is highly sensitive to a single bead (molecule). Arrays of these sensors can also be used to measure concentrations of target molecules of 1 femtomole or below.
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