New Shape Shifting Probe Is 100x Thinner Than Human Hair

The technology in use today for biochemical sensing & imaging isn't up to the mark. A team of researchers from NIST or National Institute of Standards and Technology and NIH or National Institutes of Health took it up as a challenge to push the frontiers of this tech. With their ongoing experiments, the team has developed and demonstrated a new shape-shifting probe that can do high-resolution remote biological sensing - a technology that has many applications in the fields of biology, chemistry, medicine and engineering. The interesting thing about these probes is that they are 1/100th the size of a human hair. Moreover, not only are these shape changing probes capable of detecting and measuring localized conditions within the tissues on the molecular scale, but they can observe how they change in real time as well.

The NIST and NIH researchers collaboratively came up with a design based on completely different operating principles. The design involved these shape-changing probes to operate in the radio frequency (RF) spectrum. The new devices named as Geometrically Encoded Magnetic Sensors (or GEMs) are 5-10x smaller than a single red blood cell in size, where each GEMs consists of two separate magnetic disks 0.5 to 2 micrometers in diameter and just 10s of nanometers in thickness. Between the disks is a spacer layer of hydrogel that can expand or shrink based on local conditions. The change in the distance between the disks modifies the frequency at which the protons in water molecules around and inside the gel resonate in response to radio-frequency radiation.

shape-shifting-probe-NIST-research-1

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Of the many great features, the scientists from NIST note that, an important one is that by changing the gel's composition and magnet shape & material, they can be "tuned" in fabrication to respond to different biochemical states and to resonate in different parts of the RF spectrum. The team believes that these biological sensors can be modified further to measure different biomarkers such as local temperatures, presence of enzymes, glucose, ion concentrations etc.

Though it is not possible to track highly localized pH values, the researchers share that the changes in local pH can indicate & inform early signals of many pathologies. For instance, the pH around a cancer cell is slightly lower than normal, and internal inflammation generally leads to local change in pH level. Detecting such changes might reveal the presence of an unseen tumor.

The upcoming challenge for the team involves optimizing the design and development of large-scale, dimensionally controlled fabrication processes so that researchers across the globe can use these sensors for further studies.

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