Fast, accurate nanoscale sensor created

Imagine being able to test your food in your very own kitchen to quickly determine if it carried any deadly microbes. Research conducted at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and now being commercialized by Optokey may make that possible.

Optokey, a startup based in Hayward, California, has developed a miniaturized sensor based on Raman spectroscopy that can quickly and accurately detect or diagnose substances at a molecular level. "Our system can do chemistry, biology, biochemistry, molecular biology, clinical diagnosis, and chemical analysis," said company president and co-founder Fanqing Frank Chen. "And our system can be implemented very cheaply, without much human intervention."

VP of Manufacturing Robert Chebi, a veteran of the microelectronic industry who previously worked at Lam Research and Applied Materials, calls Optokey's product a "biochemical nose," or an advanced nanophotonic automated system, with sensitivity to the level of a single molecule, far superior to sensors on the market today. "Today's detection and diagnosis methods are far from perfect -- detection limits are in PPM (parts per million) and PPB (parts per billion)," he said.

"Also, our system can provide information in minutes, or even on a continuous basis, versus other methods where it could take hours or even days, if samples have to be sent to another lab."