Directly trapping of nanoscale biomolecules using bulk acoustic wave resonators

Techniques that can manipulate micro or macro biomaterials like cells and organisms have been of interest for a wide range of applications from biochemistry to clinical diagnostics and many clever techniques have been developed. However, methods with the ability to directly manipulate nanoscale biomaterials (e.g. proteins or DNAs) are still challenging due to physical limitations like Brownian motions. Here, according to theoretical design of the stagnation point in the medium which is formed by bulk-acoustic-wave-resonator-induced acoustic streaming, we experimentally realize trapping of biomolecules characterized by length scales at nanometer. We expect bulk acoustic wave resonator (BAWR) to become a powerful tool (e.g. biosensor and bioactuator) to revolutionize the fundamental and applied research for nanoscale biomaterials manipulation.