Nanopatterned structures for biomolecular analysis towards genomic and proteomic applications

We report our fabrication of nanoscale devices using electron beam and nanoimprint lithography (NIL). We focus our study in the emerging fields of NIL, nanophotonics and nanobiotechnology and give a few examples as to how these nanodevices may be applied toward genomic and proteomic applications for molecular analysis. The examples include reverse NIL-fabricated nanofluidic channels for DNA stretching, nanoscale molecular traps constructed from dielectric constrictions for DNA or protein focusing by dielectrophoresis, multi-layer nanoburger and nanoburger multiplets for optimized surface-plasma enhanced Raman scattering for protein detection, and biomolecular motor-based nanosystems. The development of advanced nanopatterning techniques promises reliable and high-throughput manufacturing of nanodevices which could impact significantly on the areas of genomics, proteomics, drug discovery and molecular clinical diagnostics.