Towards detecting the human immunodeficiency virus using microcantilever sensors

Detecting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is difficult because the virus is prone to mutations and is in low concentrations in the body. Inside the HIV virion are two well characterized single stranded (ss) RNA molecules (viral genome) that feature both variable regions and regions that are conserved under virus mutation. In this work, microcantilever sensors have been employed as potential HIV detectors by targeting a conserved sequence of the viral genome by attempting to detect target ssDNA and ssRNA molecules that are significantly longer than the ssDNA molecules functionalized on the cantilever. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.