Label-free detection of protein-ligand interactions in real time using micromachined bulk acoustic resonators

In this paper, we present a micromachined film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) to detect protein-ligand interactions in real-time. The surface of the FBAR device has a thin layer of gold deposited on it to immobilize thiol-modified biotin. The resonant frequency of the biotin modified FBAR was measured to decrease by 170 ppm when exposed to streptavidin solution with a concentration of 5×10−7 M, corresponding to an added mass of 120 pg on the FBAR surface due to the biotin-streptavidin interaction. Consequently, the biotin modified FBAR can be used to observe in real time the biotin-streptavidin interaction without the use of labeling or molecular tags. The FBAR can be used in a variety of protein-ligand systems, and be designed for testing in array formats to give high throughput screening for drug discovery.