Golden Gopher Magnetic Biosensing: Center for Spintronic Materials, Interfaces, and Novel Architectures

Golden Gopher Magnetic Biosensing

Technology Invovation

Z-Lab is a magnetic biosensing system that has detected biomarkers in unprocessed human serum and urine, heavy metals like mercury (2+) in lake water. Ultra high sensitivity (up to 200 molecules per magnetic sensor) has been demonstrated. The Golden Gopher Magnetic Biosensing Team has also begun to develop z-Lab 2.0 and z-Lab 3.0, which are smaller, more versatile, and more portable versions of z-Lab.

Team Story

Researchers from the University of Minnesota, Mayo Clinic, and several companies – a GMR biosensing start-up company (Zepto Life Technology LLC), a start-up company which fabricates magnetic nanoparticles (Universal Magnetic System LLC), a large biological and assay development company (R&D Systems), an audio electronics repair company (Jim Sawyer Professional Audio Service), and a mechanical design company (Vates) – teamed up to form the Golden Gopher Magnetic Biosensing Team. Inspired by Dr. Jian-Ping Wang's vision of a low-cost, easy-to-use, accurate, portable GMR biosensing system, they have contributed their areas of expertise to build z-Lab and begin to design and construct z-Lab 2.0 and z-Lab 3.0.

About Our Team Leader

Jian-Ping Wang is the Robert F. Hartmann Chair and a Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and a member of the graduate faculty in Physics, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He joined the faculty of the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at the University of Minnesota in 2002 and was promoted to full professor in 2009. He was the director of the Center for Spintronic Materials, Interfaces and Novel Architectures (C-SPIN), which consists of 32 professors from 20 US universities. C-SPIN was one of six SRC/DARPA STARnet program centers and the largest vertically integrated research center on spintronic research in the world. Prof. Wang is the director of the Center for Spintronic Materials for Advanced Information Technology (SMART), one of two SRC/NIST nCORE research centers. He received the information storage industry consortium (INSIC) technical award in 2006 for his pioneering work in exchange coupled composite magnetic media and the outstanding professor award for his contribution to undergraduate teaching in 2010. He is also the recipient of 2019 SRC Technical Excellence Award for his innovations and discoveries in nanomagnetics and novel materials that accelerated the production of magnetic random-access memories. He co-founded three startup companies out of his research. He has authored and co-authored more than 300 publications in peer-reviewed top journals and conference proceedings and holds 50 patents. He is an IEEE fellow. Link to Nanospin group website.

Selected Publications

Su, D., Wu, K., Saha, R., Peng, C., & Wang, J. P. (2020). Advances in Magnetoresistive Biosensors. Micromachines, 11(1), 34.
Klein, T., Wang, W., Yu, L., Wu, K., Boylan, K. L., Vogel, R. I., ... & Wang, J. P. (2019). Development of a multiplexed giant magnetoresistive biosensor array prototype to quantify ovarian cancer biomarkers. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 126, 301-307.
Su, D., Wu, K., Krishna, V., Klein, T., Liu, J., Feng, Y., ... & Wang, J. P. (2019).Detection of influenza a virus in swine nasal swab samples with a wash-free magnetic bioassay and a handheld giant magnetoresistance sensing system. Frontiers in Microbiology, 10, 1077.
Wu, K., Klein, T., Krishna, V. D., Su, D., Perez, A. M., & Wang, J. P. (2017). Portable GMR handheld platform for the detection of influenza A virus. ACS sensors, 2(11), 1594-1601.
Krishna, V. D., Wu, K., Perez, A. M., & Wang, J. P. (2016). Giant magnetoresistance-based biosensor for detection of influenza A virus. Frontiers in microbiology, 7, 400.
Wang, Y., Wang, W., Yu, L., Tu, L., Feng, Y., Klein, T., & Wang, J. P. (2015). Giant magnetoresistive-based biosensing probe station system for multiplex protein assays. Biosensors and Bioelectronics, 70, 61-68.
Klein, T., Wang, Y., Tu, L., Yu, L., Feng, Y., Wang, W., & Wang, J. P. (2014). Comparative analysis of several GMR strip sensor configurations for biological applications. Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, 216, 349-354.
Wang, W., Wang, Y., Tu, L., Feng, Y., Klein, T., & Wang, J. P. (2014). Magnetoresistive performance and comparison of supermagnetic nanoparticles on giant magnetoresistive sensor-based detection system. Scientific reports, 4(1), 1-5.
Li, Y., Wang, Y., Klein, T., & Wang, J. P. (2014). External-field-free magnetic biosensor. Applied Physics Letters, 104(12), 122401.
Wang, W., Wang, Y., Tu, L., Klein, T., Feng, Y., Li, Q., & Wang, J. P. (2014). Magnetic detection of mercuric ion using giant magnetoresistance-based biosensing system. Analytical chemistry, 86(8), 3712-3716.
Wang, W., Wang, Y., Tu, L., Klein, T., Feng, Y., & Wang, J. P. (2012). Surface modification for protein and DNA immobilization onto GMR biosensor. IEEE transactions on magnetics, 49(1), 296-299.
Srinivasan, B., Li, Y., Jing, Y., Xing, C., Slaton, J., & Wang, J. P. (2011). A three-layer competition-based giant magnetoresistive assay for direct quantification of endoglin from human urine. Analytical chemistry, 83(8), 2996-3002.
Srinivasan, B., Li, Y., Jing, Y., Xu, Y., Yao, X., Xing, C., & Wang, J. P. (2009). A detection system based on giant magnetoresistive sensors and high moment magnetic nanoparticles demonstrates zeptomole sensitivity: Potential for personalized medicine. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 48(15), 2764-2767

University of Minnesota