Sets of functionalized nanowires can be embedded within fluidics chips, where the fluid contains target molecules of interest. The fluid may be experimentally produced, as in the case of extracted mRNA, or the fluid may be natural, as in the case of blood or urine. Below are shown schematics of such a chip. Note that the fluid moves over the wires of the chip, which allows real-time changes in molecular concentrations to be monitored. The illustration on the left shows an entire chip; the one on the right illustrates selective binding to individual nanowires on the basis of different probes that have been attached to their surfaces.

As illustrated, different nanowires on the same chip can be functionalized with different types of probes, allowing, for instance, measurement of transcription and translation of a target gene simultaneously.

Nanowire chips are manufactured in a process that is in many ways analogous to computer chip manufacture. The top illustration to the right shows a chip photomask for the design and etching of a current chip. The lower illustration is a photo of the central portion of a current device array.

Above is an optical micrograph of a nanowire device chip following application of antibodies using a Affymetrix microarrayer with ca. 100 micron diameter array spot size. The array spots were registered to regions containing nanowire devices by using standard chip design with well-defined nanoelectronic device pattern. This is functioning technology.

Vista owns exclusive rights, for health science, to three-dimensional nanowire arrays that are currently under development at Harvard. In addition to having wires laid out in a plane, as illustrated, such chips contain multiple planes. This will allow hundreds of biomarkers to be monitored simultaneously and continuously.

Top Layer of Array Photomask

Central Portion of NanoArray

Schematic of Plug-and-Play NanoBiosensor Array