Nanostructured microelectrodes and biosensing devices incorporating the same

1. A biosensing device comprising:

a substrate;

at least one electrically conductive lead on the substrate;

an insulating layer covering the lead, the insulating layer having an aperture exposing a portion of the lead;

a nanostructured microelectrode adapted by means of an electrocatalytic reporter system to generate a charge in response to a biomolecular stimulus, wherein the nanostructured microelectrode is fractal;

at least one probe molecule attached to said microelectrode; and

wherein said microelectrode is in electrical communication with the exposed portion of the lead.

2. The biosensing device of claim 1 , wherein the lead comprises a material selected from the group consisting of: Au, Al, W, TiN, and polysilicon.

3. The biosensing device of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises a material selected from the group consisting of: silicon, silica, quartz, glass, sapphire, gallium arsenide, germanium, silicon carbide, indium compounds, selenium sulfide, ceramic, plastic, polycarbonate and other polymer or combinations thereof.

4. The biosensing device of claim 1 , wherein the insulating layer is comprised of a material selected from silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, nitrogen doped silicon oxide, and parylene or combinations thereof.

5. The biosensing device of claim 1 , wherein a plurality of microelectrodes is provided in an array, and each microelectrode is individually electronically accessible.

6. The biosensing device of claim 1 ,

wherein the probe includes at least one of nucleic acids, peptide nucleic acids, locked nucleic acids, proteins, and peptides functionalized with suitable tethering molecules; and

wherein the biomolecular stimulus includes at least one of nucleic acid hybridization and protein-to-protein binding.

7. A biosensing cartridge comprising:

a sample chamber comprising a biological sample; and

a biosensing chamber containing a biosensing device comprising a nanostructured microelectrode, wherein the nanostructured microelectrode is fractal.

8. The biosensing cartridge of claim 7 , wherein the biosensing chamber comprises a buffer comprising at least one of sodium, phosphate, chloride, and magnesium.

9. The biosensing cartridge of claim 7 , further comprising a purifying chamber for at least one from among purifying the sample and isolating the sample.

10. A method of detecting a biomolecular stimulus in a biological sample using a biosensing device comprising a nanostructured microelectrode, wherein said nanostructured microelectrode is fractal and includes a probe attached thereto, said method comprising:

biasing the nanostructured microelectrode relative to a reference electrode;

measuring a reference charge or reference current flow between the nanostructured microelectrode and the reference electrode;

exposing the nanostructured microelectrode to the biological sample;

measuring a charge or current flow generated at the nanostructured microelectrode with an electrocatalytic reporter system in response to the biomolecular stimulus; and

determining the amount of biomolecular stimulus present by comparing the measured charge or measured current flow against the reference charge or reference current flow.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the probe includes at least one of nucleic acids, peptide nucleic acids, locked nucleic acids, proteins and peptides functionalized with suitable tethering molecules.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the biomolecular stimulus is nucleic acid hybridization or protein-to-protein binding.

13. The method of claim 10 , wherein the nanostructured microelectrode includes at least one of a noble metal, an alloy of a noble metal, a conducting polymer, a metal oxide, a metal silicide, a metal nitride, and carbon.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the biological sample includes at least one of a tissue sample, a cell culture isolate, blood, plasma, serum, cerebrospinal fluid, lymph, tears, urine, and saliva mucus.

15. A method of detecting the presence of a biomarker in a biological sample using a biosensing device comprising a nanostructured microelectrode adapted to generate a charge in response to a hybridization or protein-to-protein interaction event, wherein said nanostructured microelectrode is fractal and includes a probe attached thereto capable of hybridizing or binding to the biomarker of interest, the method comprising:

biasing the nanostructured microelectrode relative to a reference electrode;

measuring a reference charge or reference current flow between the nanostructured microelectrode and the reference electrode;

exposing the nanostructured microelectrode to the biological sample;

measuring a charge or current flow generated at the nanostructured microelectrode in response to the hybridization or interaction of the probe with the biomarker of interest,

wherein the presence of a charge or current flow as compared to the reference is indicative of the presence of the biomarker of interest.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the probe includes at least one of nucleic acids, peptide nucleic acids, locked nucleic acids, proteins, and peptides functionalized with suitable tethering molecules.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the nanostructured microelectrode includes at least one of a noble metal, an alloy of a noble metal, a conducting polymer, a metal oxide, a metal silicide, a metal nitride, and carbon.

18. The method of claim 15 , wherein the biological sample includes at least one of a tissue sample, a cell culture isolate, blood, plasma, serum, cerebrospinal fluid, lymph, tears, urine, and saliva mucus.

19. The method of claim 15 , wherein the biomarker of interest is a gene over-expressed in cancer cells.

20. The method of claim 15 , wherein the biomarker of interest is a viral gene.

21. The method of claim 15 , wherein the charge or current flow generated at the nanostructured microelectrode is measured with an electrocatalytic reporter system.