ABSTRACT
Point-of-care testing solutions are always desired as a viable option for the rapid and sensitive detection and analysis of disease. Cancer persists to be the most discussed global disease in which prostate, lung, breast and colon cancer are listed to be the high cause for the mortality around the world. New and alternative molecular screening methods are being used to study cancer and these are resulting in a better understanding of the disease. Multi-analyte detection based on potential lab-on-a-chip point-of-care devices (POC) are required to overcome the existing issues in cancer diagnosis. Modern research has tried to develop such interesting and facile novel functionalized nanometer-sized materials, controlling and converting their effects in a much estimated manner to address the needs of specifi c bio-analysis. Metallic or semiconducting particulate materials with a wide range of aspect ratio, cross-sectional diameter of <1 µm and length as several tens of microns are described as nanowires (Rosi and Mirkin 2005). Nanowires are found to be promising in a number of sensing strategies such as optical, electrical, electrochemical and massbased approaches, reviewed elsewhere (He et al. 2004). Features such as small size, high-surface to volume ratios, and/or electronic, optical and magnetic properties differ from those of bulk materials, which made the nanowires advanced functional materials. Recent studies revealed the possibilities of incorporating large numbers of nanowires into arrays and complex hetero-architectures for high density biosensing, electronics and mechanical applications (Liber et al. 2007). Furthermore, advanced protocols in ultrasensitive detection using single nanoparticle sensing, nano-fl uidics, single-molecule detection, and multiplexing are in construction. In specifi c, biomedical sciences and biotechnology have blessed signifi cantly from technological improvements of nanoscience. Disease diagnosis and treatment are based on an extensive analysis of biochemical processes. Identifi cation of multiple biomolecular targets, such as nucleic acids or proteins, is important for medical diagnostics and treatment. For instance, multiplexed tests for respiratory pathogens and
diagnosing cancers are found to be important for patient recovery and health monitoring (Wulfkuhle et al. 2003).
