Name: Jinju Yi and Vijay Jain

1. Name: Jinju Yi and Vijay Jain • High School: Plainview Old-Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School and Herricks High School • Mentor: Dr. Yantian Wang • Project Title: Surface Molecular Imprinting of a Nanoscale Transducer for the Rapid Detection of Bioterrorist Agents and the Early Diagnosis of Cancer • Recent advance of biosensing technology has developed in a highly specific and rapid manner.1 Previous effective biosensing techniques implemented molecular imprinting; however, these mechanisms have only yielded sensitivities only as low as 10-5mol/L and can only detect for molecules uniform in size as the template matrix.2 This investigation, however, incorporates molecular imprinting of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) fro molecules significantly larger than the assembling monomer and gears molecular imprinting to specificity in structural components of the template molecules, specifically protein structures. In molecular imprinting of SAMs, functionalized monomers crystallize around the template molecules on certain conductive substrates, which are later extract away to create receptor sites specific in molecular structure to the template molecule. These methods were employed to create a biosensing mechanism for cancer-marker proteins and virus capsids. Detection was achieved by measuring the change in electrical potential of the fabricated sensor in the presence of the template molecule. The detection of Cathepsin B, Cathepsin D, and Carcinoembryonic antigen cancer-marker proteins, and of attenuated poliovirus yielded a sensitivity of 10-11mol/L, detection ability to parts per billion, and applicable detection contingent to molecular structure. This research constructed an optimal and novel approach to the fabrication and use of potentiometric sensing for cancer-marker proteins and viral capsids. • 1 Atlas, R (2005). Biodefense research: an emerging conundrum. Current Opinion in Biotechnology. 16, 239- 242. 2 Zhou, Y (2004). Potentiometric sensing of chemical warfare agents: surface imprinted polymer integrated with an indium tin oxide electrode. Analytical Chemistry. 76, 2689-2693.