title: Biosensors based on cantilevers.
abstract: Microcantilevers based-biosensors are a new label-free technique that allows the direct detection of biomolecular interactions in a label-less way and with great accuracy by translating the biointeraction into a nanomechanical motion. Low cost and reliable standard silicon technologies are widely used for the fabrication of cantilevers with well-controlled mechanical properties. Over the last years, the number of applications of these sensors has shown a fast growth in diverse fields, such as genomic or proteomic, because of the biosensor flexibility, the low sample consumption, and the non-pretreated samples required. In this chapter, we report a dedicated design and a fabrication process of highly sensitive microcantilever silicon sensors. We will describe as well an application of the device in the environmental field showing the immunodetection of an organic toxic pesticide as an example. The cantilever biofunctionalization process and the subsequent pesticide determination are detected in real time by monitoring the nanometer-scale bending of the microcantilever due to a differential surface stress generated between both surfaces of the device.
authors.affiliation: CIBER BBN, Instituto de Microelectrónica de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Mar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Laura G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Carrascosa
authors.forename: Kiril
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zinoviev
authors.forename: Jose A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Plaza
authors.forename: Laura M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Lechuga
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000295:instrumentation*; D055617:Micro-Electrical-Mechanical Systems / Q000295:instrumentation*; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D010575:Pesticides / Q000032:analysis*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D010575:Pesticides