Sensing and Actuation from Biology to Electronics

We introduce an in vitro diagnostic magnetic biosensing platform for immunoassay and nucleic acid detection. The platform has key characteristics for a point-of-use (POU) diagnostic: portability, low-power consumption, low cost, and multiplexing capability. As a demonstration of capabilities, we use this platform for the room temperature, amplification-free detection of a 31 bp DNA oligomer and interferon-gamma (a protein relevant for tuberculosis diagnosis). Reliable assay measurements down to 100 pM for the DNA and 1 pM for the protein are demonstrated. We introduce a novel "magnetic freezing" technique for baseline measurement elimination and to enable spatial multiplexing. We have created a general protocol for adapting integrated circuit (IC) sensors to any of hundreds of commercially available immunoassay kits and custom designed DNA sequences.

We also introduce a method for immunotherapy treatment of malignant gliomas. We utilize leukocytes internalized with immunostimulatory nanoparticle-oligonucleotide conjugates to localize and retain immune cells near the tumor site. As a proof-of-principle, we develop a novel cell imaging and incubation chamber for in vitro magnetic motility experiments. We use the apparatus to demonstrate the controlled movement of magnetically loaded THP-1 leukocytes.

Finally, we introduce an IC transmitter and power ampli er (PA) that utilizes electronic digital infrastructure, sensors, and actuators to self-heal and adapt to process, dynamic, and environmental variation. Traditional IC design has achieved incredible degrees of reliability by ensuring that billions of transistors on a single IC die are all simultaneously functional. Reliability becomes increasingly difficult as the size of a transistor shrinks. Self-healing can mitigate these variations.

Industrial democracy

Since the beginning of human relations, some of the more ambitious and more capable members of society have by various means found and practiced methods of exploiting the efforts of their fellowmen to their own personal interest. These individuals have been naturally gifted at organization and control and have been able to dominate their slower, less mentally active associates. It is a cumulative process, once having been started the act of further subjugation becoming easier and easier as the clever person gets more and more control over the other.