Miniaturized Electrochemical Immunosensors for the Detection of Growth Hormone

The first part of this research involves the development of a gold-nanoparticle based sandwich type immunosensor to identify trace amounts of human chorionic gonadotropin hormone based on the direct electrochemical detection of Au nanoparticles. The second part of this research is to design a biosensor that can be easily handled, has higher specificity, sensitivity, low-cost, and rapid response and has a better detection of growth hormone (GH). Current bioanalytical techniques have reported the difficulty to detect GH doping. This research aims to address the issue of measuring GH in small volumes, which has been challenging the limits of analytical detection systems. The electrochemical measurements utilize the redox activity of ferro/ferricyanide in cyclic voltammetry and impedance spectroscopy. The detection limit 10 pg/mL was observed for GH in 20 μL sample volume, which indicated that this versatile platform can be easily adapted for decentralized electrochemical immunosensing of clinically important proteins.MAS