Nano Sensors Group - Publications

October 5, 2009 - University of Illinois and Pacific Northwest Laboratory Win NIH Economic Recovery Funding to Develop High Sensitivity Cancer Diagnostic Tests
The National Institutes of Health awarded a grant under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to fund the development of diagnostic tests on bodily fluids to detect the presence of proteins that indicate the presence of cancer. The project is a collaboration between the research groups of Prof. Brian T. Cunningham at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and Dr. Richard Zangar at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA.

Cancerous cells within the body produce a specific set of proteins that enter the bloodstream, but those proteins are diluted to very low concentrations as they are distributed throughout the body. Such proteins are known as “biomarkers” because their presence “marks” the presence of a developing tumor somewhere inside the body. A single biomarker may not conclusively indicate a cancer diagnosis, but simultaneous identification of multiple biomarkers greatly increases the accuracy of a test. Dr. Zangar leads a group of molecular biologists and surface chemists in the development of small chips that contain arrays of dozens of antibodies that specifically bind with protein biomarkers. Such chips, called “protein microarrays” have demonstrated sensitivities down to 10-13 M (low pg/ml range) for detection of protein markers associated with breast cancer . Separately, the Cunningham Group in the Bioengineering Department and Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Illinois has developed special optical surfaces called “photonic crystals” that are capable of amplifying the output of fluorescent assays by over two orders of magnitude. The photonic crystal surfaces are fabricated from plastic materials over large surface areas, and can be embedded into the surface of standard microscope slides.

“The goal of the project is to combine Pacific Northwest Laboratory’s expertise in protein microarrays with our expertise with photonic crystal fluorescence enhancement,” says Prof. Cunningham. “Using the photonic crystal, our goal is to push the detection sensitivity for protein biomarkers substantially below 1 picograms per milliliter, where a picogram is only one millionth of one millionth of a gram of protein. By detecting biomarkers at lower concentrations, the presence of hidden tumors can be detected at an early stage, while the cancer is still treatable. A rapid and inexpensive test could be performed periodically to screen for a wide array of biomarkers, and positive tests can be followed with imaging scans to locate the tumor. My group has been following the outstanding results of the Zangar group for many years, and we are excited to have the opportunity to collaborate with them.”

” The lower the concentration of a cancer marker in blood, the more likely it is that the levels of that marker will be significantly increased by a small tumor, ” Says Dr. Zangar. “Therefore, the central goal of Cunningham’s laboratory, to improve assay sensitivity, is of great importance since success will mean an improved ability to detect cancer in its earliest stages, when the disease is more readily cured and treatment is generally less harsh and costly.” The project will start in October, 2009 and continue for two years.
May 6, 2009 - Nano Sensors Group Graduate Student is Awarded the Linda Su-Nan Sah Fellowship

Sherine George, a graduate student in Bioengineering and a member of the Nano Sensors Group, was awarded the Linda Su-Nan Sah Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to women engineers on the basis of their demonstrated research interest in microtechnology or nanotechnology related to bioengineering, biophysics, bioelectronics, medical engineering, medical physics, and medical electronics. The award carries a 2-year stipend and a full tuition waiver.
April 30, 2009 - Nano Sensors Group Undergraduate Student Wins Buck Knight Outstanding Senior Award

Vikram Chaudhery was named as the winner of the A.R. "Buck" Knight Outstanding Senior Award. The award is given to an individual who has displayed outstanding scholarship and demonstrated leadership in campus activities, including activities that extendbeyond the College of Engineering. The award carries a stipend of $2500. The recipient also receives a silver tac pin in the shape of a knight. The name of the recipient is engraved on a plaque to be displayed permanently in Everitt Lab. After graduation, Mr. Chaudhery plans to earn his PhD in ECE at the University of Illinois, performing his graduate research in the Nano Sensors Group under the direction of Prof. Brian Cunningham. Mr. Chaudhery worked as an undergraduate research assistant in the Nano Sensors Group prior to starting graduate school.
April 30, 2009 - Nano Sensors Group Graduate Student Selected for the P.D. Coleman Outstanding Research Award

Nano Sensors Group member and ECE Department graduate student Charles Choi was selected for the 2009 P.D. Coleman Outstanding Research Award. The award was established by former students and colleagues of Prof. Emeritus P.D. Coleman in honor of his outstanding mentoring of graduate students while at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The award recognizes doctoral students who have demonstrated excellence in research.
March 16 , 2009 - Nano Sensors Group Graduate Student Wins Mavis Memorial Scholarship

Patrick Mathias, an MD-PhD candidate in the Bioengineering Department at the University of Illinois and a graduate student in the Nano Sensors Group, was awarded a Mavis Memorial Fund Scholarship for the 2009-2010 school year. Each Department within the College of Engineering nominates up to 3 students for the award, and the award is given to nominees based on their academic accomplishments, recommendations, and a short essay on how the nominee believe they will contribute to engineering education. Preference for the award is given to students who wish to pursue a career in teaching.
November 14 , 2008 - Collaboration Receives Grainger Award

The Grainger Program in Emerging Technologies awarded a grant of $100,000 to Prof. Rohit Bhargava (Bioengineering) and Prof. Brian T. Cunningham (Electrical and Computer Engineering) for their proposal entitled "Nanofilter-based Infrared Spectroscopic Imaging." The proposal aims to develop a new infrared spectroscopic imaging system for broad applications in medical diagnosis and materials characterization. The Grainger Program in Emerging Technologies is designed to increase awareness among faculty and students of how new developments in engineering science and technology can create commercially viable products and services. The program is designed to close the gap between federal funding and industrial support. The program funds early-stage highly novel ideas that could have a major impact on technology and business in addition to mature-stage development projects that will close the gap between a proven idea and a viable product.

November 13, 2008 - Engineering-Chemistry Collaboration Recognized by the Association for Laboratory Automation

A paper to be presented at the 2009 Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA) conference in Palm Springs, CA entitled "A General Method for Screening Protein-DNA Interactions using Label-Free Photonic Crystal Biosensor Microplates" by L.L. Chan, M. Pineda, J. Heeres, P.J. Hergenrother, and B.T. Cunningham has been chosen as a Top Candidate for the ALA Innovation Award. The ALA Innovation Award recognizes the top 10 podium presentations at the Lab Automation conference that display innovation and extraordinary vision (www.labautomation.org). The final award winner will be selected by a judging panel during the conference. Top Candidate papers are invited to travel to Frankfurt, Germany in May 2009 to present their work at the ACHEMA 2009 Conference (International Exhibition-Congress on Chemical Engineering, Environmental Protection and Biotechnology), and are invited to submit a manuscript to the Journal of the ALA.
July 1 , 2008 - Photonic Crystal Biosensors on Cover of ACS Chemical Biology Journal

In the July 2008 issue of the American Chemical Society journal Chemical Biology, a "morphed" photo of a 384-well photonic crystal biosensor microplate is featured on the front cover (image on the right side of this page). Inside the journal itself is a paper entitled "A General Method for Discovering Inhibitors of Protein-DNA Interactions Using Photonic Crystal Biosenosors," by Leo L. Chan, Maria Pineda, James T. Heeres, Paul J. Hergenrother, adn Brian T. Cunningham. The research project is a collaboration between the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois in which the team is using biosensor technology as a tool for finding chemical compounds that can interact with a key biochemical pathway that leads to Parkinson's Disease.
May 28, 2008 - Photonic Crystal Biosensor Manufacturing Methods Featured

In the May 2008 issue of the trade magazine, Vacuum and Coating Technology, the photonic crystal biosensor manufacturing method based on "webs" of continuous flexible plastic film is described in an article called "Web Based Photonic Crystal Biosensors for Drug Discovery and Diagnostics." A photo of a manufactured roll of biosensors is featured on the cover of the magazine. The web link to the magazine is http://www.vactechmag.com.
March 18, 2008 - Nikhil Ganesh Wins Racheff-Intel Award for Excellence in Graduate Research

Nano Sensors Group Materials Science and Engineering graduate student Nikhil Ganesh was selected to receive the Racheff-Intel Award for Excellence in Graduate Research for his work with photonic crystal nanostructures for enhancing fluorescence excitation and extraction. The award was established in memory of Ivan Racheff, a distinguished alumnus of the University of Illinois, and is given for excellent graduate research in any sub-field of Material Science and Engineering.
February 25, 2008 - Photonic crystals key to protective eyewear

ECE researchers are using photonic crystals in special eyewear that may one day protect soldiers. A U of I research team is currently developing technology aimed to improve devices used to protect U.S. soldiers' eyes during combat. Even though the researchers have had much progress in the past two and a half years, they are continuing to make advances.

"At this point, we've demonstrated the concepts in the lab that we theoretically predicted," said Brian Cunningham, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering (ECE) at Illinois. "The biggest obstacle to overcome now has to do with making the response speed of the devices fast enough."

The research project started shortly after Cunningham visited the U.S. Army Soldier System Center in Natick, Mass., a research laboratory headed by the U.S. Department of Defense that investigates and develops food, clothing, shelters, airdrop systems, and other service member support items for the U.S. military. While visiting the center in 2004, Cunningham gave a talk on photonic crystals, which are multilayer films used to control optical transmission, reflection, and refraction characteristics in biosensors.

The presentation intrigued a program manager in charge of technological developments for the Army’s protective eyewear who was looking for a way to solve the Army's eye protection problem and believed that photonic crystal technology could be the solution, Cunningham said.

Protective eyewear, which was first launched in the 1990s, is designed to protect U.S. soldiers from enemies attempting to disable them and United States lasers that are used when targeting. When they hit the eye, laser pulses can cause flash blindness, a visual impairment during and following exposure to a light flash of extremely high intensity, which can result in permanent blindness.

"It is a concern for the soldier not only when they are there in the battlefield, but also for the rest of their lives," Cunningham said. "Because these weapons could be used against us, the U.S. Army wanted us to develop a technology that could counter them."

The U.S. Army granted Cunningham and his research group, which consists of ECE graduate students Fuchyi Yang and Gary Yen, a contract to theoretically study potential concepts for a year. During that time, they designed devices and modeled them by computer. After the initial study, which took place from 2005 to 2006, the Army extended the grant for another two years, enabling the researchers to start building and testing hardware. They are currently one and a half years into the second stage.

"We have electromagnetics simulation software that allows us to design the photonic crystal structure and incorporate all the shapes and sizes of the materials," Cunningham said. "In the computer, we can see how efficiently the device blocks light at different wavelengths and angles." While the eye protection devices currently available can rapidly react to laser radiation, they are heavy and expensive to make, Cunningham said. In addition, when certain wavelengths hit those devices, which are similar to sunglasses or goggles that cover eyes from all angles, they turn from clear to opaque, making it hard for the soldier to see out.

"It's why (the Army) is interested in the photonic crystal technology," he said. "We can make devices that can reflect a specific band of wavelengths, but allow all the other wavelengths to come through so soldiers can still see."

Cunningham said that parts of the research are highly classified, which poses some problems. While he has a security clearance for some information, he is unable to tell his graduate students who aid in the research any of the classified information. Therefore, Cunningham said that he, Yang, and Yen will most likely make incomplete devices and send them to the Army, so other researchers can add the additional materials.

Contact: Brad Petersen, assistant director of communications, 217/244-6376.

Writer: Bridget Maiellaro, ECE Illinois.
September 25, 2007 - Researchers set new record for brightness of quantum dots
James E. Kloeppel, Physical Sciences Editor
217-244-1073; kloeppel@uiuc.edu

Brian Cunningham, professor of electrical and computer engineering, left, and graduate students, from left, Nikhil Ganesh, Wei Zhang and Patrick Mathias have set a new record for brightness of quantum dots.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — By placing quantum dots on a specially designed photonic crystal, researchers at the University of Illinois have demonstrated enhanced fluorescence intensity by a factor of up to 108. Potential applications include high-brightness light-emitting diodes, optical switches and personalized, high-sensitivity biosensors.

“We are using photonic crystals in a new way,” said Brian Cunningham, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and corresponding author of a paper published in the August issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, and featured on the cover (image on the right side of the web page). “We tune them to the specific wavelength of a laser used to stimulate the quantum dots, which couples the energy more efficiently and increases the brightness.”

A quantum dot is a tiny piece of semiconductor material 2 to 10 nanometers in diameter (a nanometer is 1 billionth of a meter). When illuminated with invisible ultraviolet light, a quantum dot will fluoresce with visible light. To enhance the fluorescence, Cunningham and colleagues at the U. of I. begin by creating plastic sheets of photonic crystal using a technique called replica molding. Then they fasten commercially available quantum dots to the surface of the plastic.“We designed the photonic crystal to efficiently capture the light from an ultraviolet laser and to concentrate its intensity right within the surface where the quantum dots are located,” said Cunningham, who also is affiliated with the university’s Beckman Institute, the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, and the Institute for Genomic Biology. “Enhanced absorption by the quantum dots is the first improvement we made.”

Enhanced, directed emission from the quantum dots is the second improvement. Quantum dots normally give off light in all directions. However, because the researchers’ quantum dots are sitting on a photonic crystal, the energy can be channeled in a preferred direction – toward a detector, for example. While the researchers report an enhancement of fluorescence intensity by a factor of up to 108 compared with quantum dots on an unpatterned surface, more recent (unpublished) work has exceeded a factor of 550. “The enhanced brightness makes it feasible to use photonic crystals and quantum dots in biosensing applications from detecting DNA and other biomolecules, to detecting cancer cells, spores and viruses,” Cunningham said. “More exotic applications, such as personalized medicine based on an individual’s genetic profile, may also be possible.”

Funding was provided by the National Science Foundation and SRU Biosystems. Part of the work was carried out in the university’s Center for Microanalysis of Materials, which is partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.

March 28, 2007 SRU Biosystems Secures Exclusive License to Evanescent Resonance Technology for Optimized Drug Discovery and Diagnostics
-Highly Sensitive Luminescence-based Label Technology Complements Company's Existing Label-free Detection Capabilities-

Woburn, Massachusetts, March 28, 2007 – SRU Biosystems, a leader in highly sensitive labeled and label-free detection technologies, today announced that it has secured an exclusive license to Evanescent Resonance (ER) technology, a detection platform that enhances the sensitivity of fluorescence-based assays for drug discovery and diagnostics. Novartis has granted SRU the exclusive rights to the ER technology for use in drug discovery, as well as all supporting intellectual property rights. The sensitivity of ER technology should make it possible to profile the entire genome utilizing minute samples, or to perform ultra-sensitive ELISAs.

“The addition of ER technology to our portfolio means that SRU has the most sensitive labeled and label-free detection technology at our fingertips,” commented Owen Dempsey, President and CEO of SRU Biosystems. “We are excited to bring the capabilities of both the ER platform and our label-free BIND® system together in ways never used before that may enhance companies’ drug discovery and diagnostics efforts. This technology works with virtually any luminescence-based label, while increasing assay sensitivity 100-fold. Additionally, this technology, which is incorporated into standard microarray slides and microtiter plates, is compatible with existing infrastructure and commercial equipment on the market, furthering its commercial attractiveness to researchers.”

The ER technology is a luminescence-based platform that utilizes an optical amplification to enhance signal intensities, which in one embodiment enables precise measurement of gene expression from very small samples that include less than one nanogram of RNA; traditional microarrays require much more RNA for gene expression profiling. Utilizing ER, the fluorophores attached to samples are excited more efficiently when compared to standard assays, resulting in up to a 100-fold increase in the level of fluorescence signals and corresponding improved detection limits.
January 17, 2007 - Illinois and Pakistani researchers team for cancer cures

Researchers at Illinois are teaming up with counterparts in Pakistan to develop nanotechnologies which will identify potential cancer therapies which utilize native medicinal plants. “The Indo-Pakistan subcontinent is rich in such remedial sources, most of which remain untouched,” explained Kenneth Watkin, co-director and lead principle investigator (PI) for the “Nanomedicine for Cancer” research project, which is being funded by the Pakistan-U.S. Science and Technology Cooperative Program.
“My research focuses on the development and application of new methods of biomedical imaging for diagnosis and treatment,” stated Watkin, a professor in the College of Applied Health Sciences. “Pakistan is among the eight leading exporters of medicinal plants. There is a need to build partnerships that help provide the infra-structure and training for the application and utilization of recently developed new rapid screening techniques for evidenced based evaluation of various plant extracts.” Watkins stated that proteins, the key elements of the biological machinery, are involved in a variety of functions such as modulation of the immune system, regulation and processing of hormones, protein degradation and processing, signal transduction, programmed cell death etc. in addition to the normal metabolic processes.

“We have employed a new label-free optical biosensor system for high throughput evaluation,” said Watkin, who is also the director of the Medical Imaging Research Laboratory, which is a part of the Bioimaging Science and Technology Group at Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology.

“This new biosensor system is being used for rapid evaluation of the breast cancer apoptotic potential of plant extracts. Our preliminary research revealed several potential extracts that kill breast cancer cells. The potential cancer treatment extract candidates will progress to clinical evaluation,” stated co-PI Brian Cunningham, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Illinois.

“The application of this type of nanomedicine technology has enormous potential not only for the treatment of cancer but also for the medicinal plant industry in Pakistan. Applications include high throughput pharmaceutical compound screening, molecular diagnostics, PCR, electrophoresis, label-free microarrays, proteomics, environmental detection, and whole-cell assays,” said Irfan Ahmad, associate director for the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST), who is a co-director/co-PI on the project.

“This research award also highlights the College of Engineering's (COE) growing partnerships with other colleges on campus such as the Applied Health Sciences through the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology,” stated COE dean Ilesanmi Adesida.

“The research also will be conducted at the newly established bionanotechnology section of the Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory,” said Ahmad. The University of Illinois’ research team includes Watkin, Ahmad, Cunningham, and Hanafy Fouly, a research specialist/plant pathologist in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science at the College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences. The co-director/PI on the Pakistani side of the project is Atiya Abbasi of the International Center for Chemical Sciences, H.E.J. Research Institute of Chemistry and Dr. Panjwani Center for Molecular Medicine & Drug Research at the University of Karachi.

The joint research proposalsubmitted under the Pakistan-US Science and Technology Cooperative Program for 2006 was one of only 13 selected from among the 121 applications. The selection committee has recommended U.S. funding for the project at a total level of $250,000 over three years.

As stated in the proposal, Pakistan has the third highest cancer rate of all thirteen South-Central Asian countries. The most prevalent cancers for men are, in rank order, lung, bladder, esophagus, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and colon cancer. The most prevalent cancers for women, in rank order, are breast, oral, ovarian and cervical cancer. More than 70% of the developing world's population still depends on the complementary and alternative systems of medicine (CAM).Evidence-based CAM therapies have shown remarkable success in healing acute as well as chronic diseases. There is a definite need to design training and capacity-building programs for the CAM practitioners who need such continuing education, hence bringing them into the mainstream and elevating their status in society.
September 28, 2006 - BIND BIOSENSORS RECOGNIZED FOR INNOVATION IN DRUG DISCOVERY
Characterization of Small Molecule Binding; Use of Labels Not Required
Woburn, Massachusetts, September 28, 2006 -- SRU Biosystems, Inc. announced today that the Company was recognized at this year's Annual Meeting of the Society for Biomolecular Sciences (SBS 2006) with one of the conference's Best Poster awards. SRU development scientists, in collaboration with researchers at GlaxoSmithKline's Pharmaceutical Drug Discovery Center in Tres Cantos, Spain, presented a poster entitled, BIND Microplate Label-free Biosensor Applied to Screening and Characterization of Small Molecule Ligands to Multiple Proteins.

The work shows how BIND can be used to measure direct binding of small molecules to immobilized protein targets without labels. The latest results utilized a validation library of greater than 1,400 diverse compounds to evaluate the use of the BIND Reader and 384-well BIND Biosensor plates to characterize a variety of small molecule-ligand interactions,î explained Lance Laing, PhD, who directed the research for SRU. Two important aspects of the work included the ability to measure active protein in the presence of DMSO and to characterize small molecule binding for specificity, affinity and mechanism of action.

Owen Dempsey, CEO of SRU Biosystems, stated, "We at SRU wish to thank the Society for Biomolecular Sciences for recognizing the importance of our work with GSK." Mr. Dempsey continued, "SRU's intellectual property portfolio encompasses all aspects of the BIND System, which we believe sets the standards in label-free detection. We want to focus on commercializing the BIND product line. From proteins to small molecules and cells; from 96-well biosensor plates for antibody affinity ranking to small molecule drug development in 384-well biosensor plates, BIND is an exciting tool in the hands of our customers.
July 10, 2006 - Nano Sensors Group at UIUC demonstrates biosensor operating at ultraviolet wavelenghts for improved surface sensitivity.

A paper entitled “UV-Wavelength Photonic-Crystal Biosensor with Enhanced Surface-to-Bulk Sensitivity Ratio” by Nikhil Ganesh, Ian Block, and Brian Cunningham was published in the July 10, 2006 issue of Applied Physics Letters, and featured on the cover of the journal. The paper describes the design, fabrication, and testing of a photonic crystal biosensor narrowband reflectance filter with a resonant wavelength of 405 nm that has 4.5x higher signal-to-noise ratio than similar sensors with resonances in the infrared portion of the spectrum. The new device design is especially important for detection of small molecules or low concentration analytes where larger signals enable detection of biomolecular intereactions that are not otherwise possible to observe.
The July, 2006 issue of Expert Opinions in Proteomics (image on right) featured photonic crystal biosensor technology in its Technology Review section in an article entitled “Microplate-based label-free detection of biomolecular interactions: applications in proteomics and drug discovery” by Brian T. Cunningham and Lance Laing. The report describes the fabrication and operation of plastic-based photonic crystal biosensors, and their application to assays in a diverse of fields that include pharmaceutical drug screening, hybridoma screening, and cell-based assays.
April 10, 2006 - Multidisciplinary team at UIUC wins grant for use of biosensor technology to study potential drugs for Parkinson's disease and cancer.

The National Cancer Institute of the NIH awarded a 3-year grant to Prof. Brian Cunningham of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department and Prof. Paul Hergenrother of the Chemistry Department at the University of Illinois for a project entitled “Label-Free, High-Throughput Small Molecule Screening Using Photonic Crystal Technology: Application to the Apoptotic Pathway.” The project will involve application of photonic crystal biosensor technology to determination of potential therapeutic drug compounds that have the ability to interact with key biochemical pathways involved in Parkinson’s disease and cancer. A chemical compound library with >20,000 potential drug compounds will be screened, representing the largest label-free biosensor screening experiment ever attempted. The methods developed under the grant will be applied broadly to even larger chemical compound libraries in the future.

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