Use of biospecific reactions for the design of high-sensitivity biosensors based on nanomechanical cantilever systems

The study of nanomechanical cantilever systems is among the priority directions in the progression of nanotechnologies. Principally new ways of designing biosensors based on nanocantilever transducers are investigated, the effect of orientation of receptor immunoglobulin molecules in the sensor layer on the formation of lateral strain during complementary binding is examined for the first time, and unique techniques for creation of selective receptor transducers based on cantilevers are developed. The unique data of this study make it possible to state that, owing to the presence of 13-thiotridecane-1,1,2-triol molecules in the probe DNA layer, the lateral strain tends to increase during hybridization of complementary molecules. Theoretical predictions and experimental data are compared, and the effect of the formation of lateral strain in polymer layers on the bending of the cantilever transducer is revealed. The nature of lateral strain arising in films of biopolymers (proteins and DNA) during complementary binding (formation of the immune complex for protein molecules and hybridization for DNA) is ascertained.