The Research Team Led by Professor WANG Chen from the School of Chemistry and Materials Science Has Published Important Research Findings in the Field of Nanofluidic Control Analysis in Journal of the American Chemical Society

Recently, the research team led by Professor WANG Chen from the School of Chemistry and Materials Science of NNU has successfully developed an asymmetric dual-nanopipette sensor. This sensor enables label-free, multi-channel, ultra-sensitive and rapid quantitative detection of pathogenic bacteria, offering a new approach for food safety monitoring and clinical infection diagnosis. The related research results were published in Journal of the American Chemical Society, titled “Enzymatic Charge Switching in Asymmetric Dual-Barrel Nanopipettes for Multiplex and Label-Free Bacterial Detection” (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5c23220).

Bacterial infections pose a serious threat to public health. Traditional detection methods are time-consuming and costly, making them unable to meet the needs of rapid on-site screening. In response to the shortcomings of traditional bacterial detection, WANG Chen’s team took a different approach by integrating enzyme-triggered surface charge switching with ionic current rectification (ICR) in two independently functionalized channels to construct a biomimetic nanochannel sensing platform. In response to different enzymes, the charge density between two channels changes from unipolar asymmetry to symmetry or bipolar asymmetry, thereby generating characteristic current responses, enabling specific recognition of different bacteria. This platform can complete the detection within 30 minutes and does not require labeling or complex equipment. Studies have shown that its detection limits for Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae are as low as 12 CFU/mL and 126 CFU/mL, respectively, demonstrating excellent sensitivity and detection performance. Further research indicates that this sensor has good applicability and stability in complex real samples such as milk, drinking water, and serum, with high detection recovery rates and good repeatability, thus enabling rapid quantitative analysis of bacteria in various scenarios. This research integrates nanofluidic technology with biosensing, providing key technical support for the development of portable pathogen detection devices and addressing issues of bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance.

Doctoral student WANG Ruyi and Dr. HAN Lingfei from China Pharmaceutical University are the co-first authors of this paper. Professor WANG Chen is the sole corresponding author. This work was supported by grants from the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

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