Han Lab announces updated, two-dimensional biomicrosieve

February 5, 2007

Jonyoong Han, Karl Van Tassel Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering in the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and principal investigator in the Research Lab of Electronics (RLE) and his colleagues in the Micro/Nanofluidic bioMEMS Group have just announced the development of a new two(-orthogonal)-dimension biomicrosieve which now enables the rapid sorting of proteins, in addition to the previously sortable larger molecules such as DNA. This is an advancement over the single dimensional sieve structure that Han's group reported a year ago.

"I shifted my attention from DNA into the area of protein separation around 2002 with the shift to proteomics (the study of proteins)," Han stated to the MIT News Office in a press release dated February 5, 2007. As he also noted, "..the field was using decades-old gel electrophoresis technology. There is a big gap in the need for technology in this area." According to Han the difference in separating molecules such as proteins is now cut down to about a minute compared with the hours-long time required for gel eletrophoresis techniques.

The Han group's results are now reported in the February 5, 2007 issue of Nature Nanotechnology. The co-authors include Jianping Fu, a PhD candidate in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Reto B. Schoch, a postdoctoral associate in RLE. Additional authors include Anna Stevens, postdoctoral associate in the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences, and Professor Steven Tannenbaum of MIT's Biological Engineering Division.

The new anisotropic sieve, which is embedded into a silicon chip, will now enable continuous-flow separation of complex biological samples. These developments will allow scientists to specify molecular size--or tracking of biomarkers or proteins that reveal the presence of disease within the sample.

Funding came from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Singapore-MIT Alliance.