Integrated lab on chip for detection of cells and micro-organisms

Nanowire field effect transistors (FETs) have been widely used as sensors for detection of biological products including small molecules, proteins, and nucleic acids [1]. Biological FET's provide high sensitivity, small size, portability and low cost making them an attractive option for 'lab-on-a-chip' applications [2]. Our research aims to take 'lab-on-a-chip' technology one step further by introducing the concept of a 'lab-on-a-transistor'. In this methodology, laboratory operations are performed individually on a single transistor instead of on an entire microchip. To demonstrate this concept, our group has developed a heating technique that allows transistors to act as electrically addressable, individual heating units. We have coupled the transistor heaters with placement of sub-nanoliter droplets to create individual heated reaction volumes (see Figure 1). Under this configuration FET devices become highly localized heater/sensor-hybrids capable of high-speed thermocycling of <1nL reactions with potential for electrical detection of biological analytes.