Ultra-sensitive protein detection with organic electrochemical transistors printed on plastic substrates

• Published in: Flexible and printed electronics Vol. 3; no. 3; pp. 34002 - 34010
• Main Authors: Macchia, Eleonora, Romele, Paolo, Manoli, Kyriaki, Ghittorelli, Matteo, Magliulo, Maria, Kovács-Vajna, Zsolt M, Torricelli, Fabrizio, Torsi, Luisa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IOP Publishing 25.07.2018
• Subjects: immunosensors; OECTs; plastic biosensors; protein detection
• ISSN: 2058-8585; 2058-8585
• DOI: 10.1088/2058-8585/aad0cb

The detection of protein biomarkers is of great importance in the early diagnosis of severe pathological states. Although in the last decade many approaches to achieve ultra-sensitive protein detection have been developed, most of them require complicated assay set-ups, hindering their adoption in point-of-care applications and on-spot diagnosis. Here we show an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) biosensor printed on plastic substrates that can selectively detect Immunoglobulin G (IgG) with an unprecedented attomolar detection limit. The OECT is used as a transducer of the biorecognition event taking place at the gate electrode. The measured concentrations are well below the detectable limits of the leading clinical diagnostic enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and comparable to the ones gathered with the label-needing single molecule arrays platform. Our work benchmarks the role of plastic OECT-based biosensors as a powerful tool in simple, low cost, yet non-invasive, ultra-sensitive, and widely applicable immunoassay technology.