Biomedical

Realisations for this Category

(a) Schematic of the experimental setup. (b) Microfabricated silicon-based MF device

+fast +effective +integrated

The solubility of gaseous carbon dioxide (CO₂) in a solvent and the rate of its dissolution critically impact a broad range of applications in: carbon management, medicine, geophysics and chemical synthesis. Examples of applications in which CO₂ acts as a solute include the sequestration of CO₂ in liquids, the development of blood substitutes with high gas solubilities, the use of microscale CO₂ bubbles for contrast enhancement in biomedical imaging, the role of dissolved CO₂ in the carbon balance of the oceans, etc.

Using the QNI, Prof. Axel Guenther at the University of Toronto developed the first automated microfluidic platform for the combined study of CO₂ dissolution and solubility in different physical solvents. The microfabricated chip produces results about 300 times faster than typical large scale methods.

Reference

[1] Early web publication: http://xlink.rsc.org/?doi=C2LC21043F

Researcher

Pr. A. Guenther (University of Toronto)

QNI contribution

Sputtering deposition
Wafer bonder
Inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching (ICP-RIE)
Wet etching
Mask aligner
Reactive ion etching (RIE)

Highly robust array of nanobiosensing plateform for cancer marker detection

Nanobiosensor plateform

+efficient +small+integrated

Nanowires are excellent bio-sensing components due to their enhanced sensitivity and low reagents consumption. Their expected fields of applications are wide ranging, from next-generation diagnostic devices for personal healthcare to environmental monitoring. For high throughput biosensing applications, nanowires must be organized onto a platform and made to connect to the macro-world. This challenge has been met with the development of the first plug-and-play platform for biosensing applications, which was able to detect down to picoMolar concentration of cancer markers opening the door for a practical, user-friendly and highly miniaturized biosensing device.

This technology is further extended to develop a novel nanobiosensing platform consisting of hundreds of these nanoelectrodes, which is highly demanded in high throughput disease detection and therapeutics screening with only a minute amount of samples.

Researchers

I. Statekina, R. Elshafey, A. Ng, B. Le Drogoff, Pr. M. Chaker, Pr. M. Zourob (INRS)

Companies

pDevices Inc.

QNI contribution

ebeam lithography

A more economical nanofabrication method

Copper nanoparticules electrodeposited on gold electrodes. The elctrodes are grafted with 4-amino-phenyl groups

+efficient +structured +economical

Classic lithography and etching techniques for the preparation of nanostructured surfaces are expensive. Professor Bélanger’s team perfected an alternate preparation method based on the self-organizing properties of polystyrene beads on gold or glassy carbon surfaces. As this layer of beads plays the role of lithographic mask, the parts that are not masked can be functionalized by electrochemical grafting. The second phase consists in washing the polystyrene beads and replacing them by an electroplated metal, thus leading to a hybrid metal/organic nanostructured surface. This method also offers the possibility of developing nanostructured hybrid surfaces consisting of 2 types of molecules, chemical or biochemical, opening the way for the creation of ultraminiaturized biosensors.