A survey of the 2006–2009 quartz crystal microbalance biosensor literature

Abstract

Since the publication of the original review of piezoelectric acoustic sensors in this series there has been a consistent, gradual expansion in the number of published papers using 'quartz crystal microbalances' (QCM). Between 2001 and 2009, the number of QCM publications per annum has increased from 49 to 273, with a two-fold increase in papers per annum between 2004 and 2008. Within the field, comparing the time covered by the current to the previous review, there are trends towards increasing use of QCM in the study of protein adsorption to surfaces (93% increase), homeostasis (67% increase), protein-protein interactions (40% increase) and carbohydrates (43% increase). New commercial systems have been released that are driving the uptake of the technology for characterization of binding specificities, affinities, kinetics and conformational changes associated with a molecular recognition event. This paper highlights theoretical and practical aspects of the principles that underpin acoustic analysis, then reviews exemplary papers in key application areas involving small molecular weight ligands, carbohydrates, proteins, nucleic acids, viruses, bacteria, cells and membrane interfaces.

Real-time Monitoring of Intermediates Reveals the Reaction Pathway in the Thiol-Disulfide Exchange between Disulfide Bond Formation Protein A (DsbA) and B (DsbB) on a Membrane-immobilized Quartz Crystal Microbalance (QCM) System

“…Oscillation of QCMs in aqueous solutions has been applied to nonlabeling biosensors that can detect biomolecular interactions as mass changes on the sensor surface in real time (18). We previously used this technique to detect various biomolecular interactions, such as DNA-DNA, DNA-peptide, and peptide-peptide interactions using a ligand-immobilized quartz plate (19 -21).…”

A Review of Detection Methods for the Plant Viruses

“…QCMI shows high detection sensitivity for biological materials even viruses (Bachelder et al, 2005;Eun et al, 2002;Kleo et al, 2011;Lee and Chang, 2005;Owen et al, 2007;Su et al, 2003;Susmel et al, 2000;Uttenthaler et al, 2001). Because a detection instrument for QCM is potable and QCM coated with virus-specific antibodies to detect plant viruses has long life span, it can be used for on site detection of plant viruses (Becker and Cooper, 2011;Eun et al, 2002).…”

The use of a quartz crystal microbalance as an analytical tool to monitor particle/surface and particle/particle interactions under dry ambient and pressurized conditions: a study using common inhaler components

“…A typical QCM sensor would be constructed by immobilizing antibody or the antigen to the sensor working surface. The interactions with the corresponding antigen or antibody are detected through changes in the frequency of oscillation of the quartz crystal 15 . When operating in gas phase, changes in the oscillation frequency may be mathematically correlated to the mass changes on the QCM surface using the Sauerbrey equation 16 .…”