This would enable the right therapy at the right place at the right time, with minimized side effects and no invasive surgery. To date, applications of this work are mainly in quality and process control, where the technology is used in sensing devices for gaseous analytes, such as process gases or solvent vapors. Such devices are not limited to gaseous environment, but also function in liquids. This led the way to the research now reported in Science on using the biomechanical sensors in biochemistry and medical diagnostics. The method is based on directly transforming specific biochemical recognition into a nanomechanical motion.
Hybridization is a prominent example of molecular recognition.
Each cantilever is coated on one side by specific biomolecules. When immersed in solution, molecules of an injected substance dock to a layer of receptor molecules that have been attached to one side of the cantilever. Sensitizing an array of cantilevers, each with a different receptor, allows docking of different substances in the same solution. The increase of the molecular 'packing density' leads to surface stress and thus to bending of the cantilever. The scientific report on this work is published in Science, Vol.