This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project proposes to develop an inexpensive, automated, highly sensitive biosensor chip that would detect small quantities of nucleic acids directly without the need for either a reporter molecule reaction or a PCR expansion reaction. It is expected that the proposed molecular detection platform will provide unparalleled specificity and sensitivity while decreasing sample preparation time by a factor of twenty five, capital costs by a factor of twenty, and the cost of disposables, including the chip, by a factor of five.
The commercial application of this project will be in a number of markets, including biological and biomedical research, diagnostics and forensics.
