AN integrated microfluidic system using field-effect transistors for CRP detection

Cardiovascular diseases are responsible for 25-million deaths worldwide on a yearly basis. Timely diagnosis of the disease is therefore an extensive research area. Toward this end, C-reactive protein (CRP) has become a reliable biomarker for evaluating risks of cardiovascular diseases. For commercial methods of CRP detection, the diagnosis of the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) protocol and the high-sensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) were relatively time-consuming and the sensitivity and the detection limit of the above methods were not satisfactory. Recently, a CRP-specific aptamer (DNA-based) with high sensitivity and specificity was used to detect CRP in a microfluidic system, which was capable of performing the detection in an automated fashion while consuming tiny volumes of reagents and samples. Alternatively, AlGaN/GaN HEMT-based field-effect transistor (FET) sensors have emerged as promising biosensors to detect small molecules, proteins and even viruses, and have demonstrated rapid and highly sensitive detection in a compact system. To date, however, the combination of the microfluidic system, CRP-specific aptamer and high sensitivity FET sensors has not yet attempted. In this study, an integrated device that combined the advantages of microfluidics, CRP-specific aptamer and FET-based sensors was developed to achieve rapid, sensitive and specific CRP detection.