Aptamer-Funtionalized Microtubue For Contineous And Selective Capturing And Filtering Using A Nanoporous Hydrogel Membrane

Abstract

We present a novel biomolecule sensing mechanism that allows sensitive detection and selective extraction of a target biomolecule by utilizing microtubules as molecular carriers and a nanoporous hydrogel membrane (NHM) as a size-based filter on a microfluidic chip. The aptamer-functionalized microtubules (AFMT) that selectively capture target analytes are continuously delivered by electrophoresis (EP) and then the NHM sieves the targets from complex analytes. Most nontarget biomolecules penetrate through the NHM owing to the smaller characteristic length than the nanopores in an NHM (approximately 100 nm). Therefore, the microfluidic platform enables the continuous accumulation and selective separation in a simultaneous manner at a run.