A 50-year-old dream of integrating single molecules into circuits to push Moore's Law's ultimate scaling boundaries has finally come true. This has become a reality with the development of the first molecular electronics chip.
The new device creates a programmable biosensor with real-time, single-molecule sensitivity and infinite scalability in sensor pixel density. It achieves this by using single molecules as universal sensor elements in a circuit. This is no less than a breakthrough for
Industrial Electronic Chip Market as it could fuel advancements in various domains, including drug development, proteomics, DNA sequencing, and diagnostics. These fields could experience a positive impact as they are essentially reliant on monitoring molecular interactions.
Biology works by single molecules interacting with each other. However, the currently available measurement methods cannot detect this. The sensors demonstrated in this paper allow one to listen in on these molecular communications for the first time. Thus, enabling a new and powerful view of biological information.
This research aims to establish biosensing as an ideal technology foundation for precision medicine and personal wellness in the future. This necessitates not only putting biosensing on a chip but doing so correctly and with the appropriate sensor. The team has pre-shrunk the sensor element to the molecular level to build a biosensor platform. It works by combining an altogether new type of real-time, single-molecule measurement with a long-term, limitless scaling roadmap. The process helps build less expensive, faster, and smaller tests and equipment
The novel molecular electronics platform identifies multi-omic molecular interactions at the single-molecule level in real-time. It shows how such probes can be used for various purposes, including quick COVID testing, drug discovery, and proteomics. The study includes a variety of probe molecules such as DNA, antigens, antibodies, and aptamers. Further, it also involved the activity of enzymes used in diagnostics and sequencing, such as a CRISPR Cas enzyme that binds to its target DNA.
In addition, the paper describes a molecular electronics sensor that can read DNA sequences. A DNA polymerase, or DNA-copying enzyme, is integrated into the circuit of this sensor. Thus, facilitating direct electrical monitoring of the enzyme's activities as it replicates a piece of DNA, letter by letter.
Unlike other sequencing technologies that rely on indirect measures of polymerase activity, this method allows for direct, real-time monitoring of a nucleotide-incorporating DNA polymerase enzyme. The research shows how machine learning methods may be used to assess these activity signals and read the sequence.
The Roswell sequencing sensor provides a new, direct view of polymerase activity. Moreover, it can speed up and lower the cost of sequencing by orders of magnitude. This ultra-scalable technology allows for highly dispersed personal health and environmental monitoring sequencing. Furthermore, it enables future ultra-high-throughput applications like Exabyte-scale DNA data storage.
