Electrical nanowell diagnostics sensors for rapid and ultrasensitive detection of prostate-specific antigen

Alumina nanowell based disposable diagnostic biosensor for detecting and quantifying levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) from human serum has been designed, fabricated and tested. The biosensors were designed by integrating nanoporous alumina membranes onto printed circuit board platforms, resulting in the generation of high-density nanowell arrays with gold base electrodes. The size and density of the nanowells were leveraged toward achieving sieving action for size-based exclusion of nonspecific molecules and size-based confinement of the target PSA molecules. We demonstrated PSA detection between 0.01 and 1000 ng/ml and detection and quantification of PSA from a 17 patient cohort validated using the Beckman Access system with >95% correlation.