Design of a high sensitive non-faradaic impedimetric sensor

an electrochemical approach towards identifying antigen - antibody binding interactions is studied by using a non-faradaic impedimetric sensor fabricated on a printed circuit board (PCB) chip. An electrical methodology for detecting protein interactions at ultra-low concentrations (in the femtogram/mL) regime has been demonstrated. Nanoporous alumina with pore diameter of 200nm and pore depth of 250 nm was used as the signal amplifying medium. Cardiac biomarker, brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) was used as the study marker in characterizing the sensor's sensitivity. A sensitivity of 10 femtogram/mL was determined based on the impedimetric signal response. Sensitivity was determined through Nyquist plot analysis for the non-faradaic interactions of the protein biomolecules. This paper is the first demonstration of clinically relevant limit of detection with the BNP biomarker.