Detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) Coronavirus Nucleocapsid Protein Using AlGaN/GaN High Electron Mobility Transistors

AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) were used to detect the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV) nucleocapsid protein interaction without fluorescent labeling. The detection limit in our system was approximately 0.003 nM of protein sample. Our result showed that this technique was more competitive than isotope-labeling EMSA. We demonstrated AlGaN/GaN was highly potential in constructing a semiconductor-based-sensor binding assay to extract the dissociation constants of nucleic acid-protein interaction.