A graphene aptasensor for biomarker detection in human serum

Highlights: • A graphene FET nanosensor is used for IgE detection in human serum. • Functionlized PEG rejects nonspecific adsorption while increases the effective Debye length. • Aptamers are attached to PEG to recognize IgE molecules. • IgE in serum with a concentration range from 50 pM to 250 nM is successfully quantified. This paper presents an affinity graphene nanosensor for detection of biomarkers in undiluted and non-desalted human serum. The affinity nanosensor is a field-effect transistor in which graphene serves as the conducting channel. The graphene surface is sequentially functionalized with a nanolayer of the polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG) and a biomarker-specific aptamer. The aptamer is able to specifically bind with and capture unlabeled biomarkers in serum. A captured biomarker induces a change in the electric conductivity of the graphene, which is measured in a buffer of optimally chosen ionic strength to determine the biomarker concentration. The PEG layer effectively rejects nonspecific adsorption of background molecules in serum while still allowing the aptamer to be readily accessible to serum-borne biomarkers and increases the effective Debye screening length on the graphene surface. Thus, the aptamer-biomarker binding sensitively changes the graphene conductivity, thereby achieving specific and label-free detection of biomarkers with high sensitivity and without the need to dilute or desalt the serum. Experimental results demonstrate that the graphene nanosensor is capable of specifically capturing human immunoglobulin E (IgE), used as a representative biomarker, in human serum in the concentration range of 50 pM–250 nM, with a resolution of 14.5 pM and a limit of detection of 47 pM.