Arizona State University

This project aims at developing a technology to measure one of the most fundamental and important quantities in nature, the mass of a single molecule.  The research question to be addressed is “How can we precisely measure the mass of a single molecule, identify the molecule based on its mass, and study its affinity properties without using labels?”  Unlike conventional microfabricated mechanical oscillators, this project proposes a self-assembled molecular oscillator approach.  The success of the project may lead to unprecedented capabilities for studying single molecules, allowing the limitations of the current mass spectroscopy and immunoassay technologies to be overcome and providing a detection technology to cover the “Terahertz gap” in the electromagnetic spectrum.  The research team at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University is dedicated to the study, control and detection of single molecules, the smallest building blocks of functional devices, and to transform these capabilities into functional devices for solving real-world problems.  The team has pioneered techniques to create and study single molecule junctions, and developed a plasmonic imaging technique for measuring nanoparticle surface interactions, which have prepared them to achieve the goals of this project.