Fast and inexpensive molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases

In cooperation with DMCE GmbH (Danube Mobile Communication Engineering) and Siemens AG, the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT) develops a CMOS-integrated biochip. The development is carried out within the scope of the BMBF- and FFG-funded project “MinoLab” coordinated by Magna Diagnostics GmbH. The goal of the project is to realize a mobile platform for fast and inexpensive molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases. Here, all required analysis steps are carried out at the surface of magnetic particles (“beads”) which are transported by magnetic forces through a credit-card-sized plastic cartridge which is inserted into an analyzer instrument.

The infectious disease characteristic molecules are detected by specific binding of the beads to the surface of the biochip. The magnetic stray field of a bound bead changes the electrical resistance of the underlying so-called tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) sensing cell, which is recorded by the CMOS chip. More than a hundred thousand sensing cells arranged in 128 sub-arrays are integrated on the biochip, which allows the sensitive and highly dynamic detection of dozens of pathogens in parallel. The figure shows the magnetic biochip in different zoom factors from the entire biochip down to the level of single sensing cells.

Contact: Dr. Giorgio C. Mutinati, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
giorgio.mutinati@ait.ac.at