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ENLIGHTENED


The ENLIGHTENED project is devising a system to analyze the mass distribution of species that are today out of the reach of any commercial instrument. A new system architecture will be demonstrated with new optomechanical resonators for mass sensing.This will reveal new physics governing noise limitation at the nanoscale.



Published on 23 April 2021

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Nanophotonic Nanomechanical Mass Spectrometry for Biology and Health

The ENLIGHTENED project is devising a system to analyze the mass distribution of species that are today out of the reach of any commercial instrument. A new system architecture will be demonstrated with new optomechanical resonators for mass sensing.This will reveal new physics governing noise limitation at the nanoscale.





 

Starting date : Jun. 2014 > May 2020

Lifetime: 72 months


Program in support : ERC Consolidator


 

Status project : complete


CEA-Leti's contact :

Sébastien Hentz

Yves Quéré

 

Project Coordinator: CEA-Leti (FR)


Partners:  n/a


Publications:

  • Nat. Commun. 2018, (2018) 9:3283, E. Sage, M. Sansa,S. Fostner, M. Defoort, M. Gély, A.-K. Naik, E.Colinet, C. Masselon, A. Brenac, S. Hentz.
  •  Nat. Nanotechnol. 2016, 1–31, M. Sansa, E. Sage, E.-C. Bullard, M. Gély, T. Alava, E. Colinet, K. Naik, L.-G. Villanueva, L. Duraffourg, M.-L. Roukes, S.Hentz.
  • S. Dominguez-Medina, S. Fostner, M. Defoort, M. Sansa, A.-K. Stark, M.-A. Halim, E. Vernhes, M.Gely, G.Jourdan, T. Alava, P. Boulanger, C.Masselon, S. Hentz, S. Science (80-. ) 2018, 362 (6417), 918–922.


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Investment:  € 2 m.

EC Contribution: € 2 m.


Stakes

  • For the first time, ENLIGHTENED has shown that the model of resonator frequency stability commonly accepted by the community is erroneous for silicon NEMS resonators.

  • We have also demonstrated that our system could perform mass measurements efficiently in a mass range outside the range of any commercial instrument. This was shown using the highest molecular mass ever measured: a bacteriophage virus capsid.

  • We have performed the first single-particle mass spectrometry analysis with optomechanical resonators.

OBJECTIVES


  • Mass spectrometry has become a routinely used analytical tool in modern biological research and has gained a foothood in recent years in the realm of clinical diagnostic and screening. However, it the technique remains expensive and complex, and it cannot analyze biomolecules heavier than a few Mda because its principle depends on ionization. Furthermore, it cannot characterize the genetic diversity of such heavy entities because it averages more than 100 million particles per measurement.

  • Building on nanomechanical mass sensing, ENLIGHTENED aims to demonstrate a breakthrough mass spectrometry concept for intact biomolecules in a so far unexplored high mass range based on single molecule sensitivity and unprecedented resolving power.


  • ENLIGHTENED objectives:
    • Demonstration of a novel system architecture for transferring all single mass neutral particles to the detector in a focused beam
    • Development of a new class of nanomechanical mass detectors with close-to-100% capture cross sections. These detectors are ultra-dense arrays of resonating devices, which are coupled to photonic resonators ensuring efficient transduction, large scale multiplexing, high frequency operation and single mass self-oscillation
    • Understanding and suppressing the limiting source of frequency noise to improve the mass limit of detection of
    nanomechanical devices by orders of magnitude
    • Demonstrating the full potential of this breakthrough technology by acquiring the mass spectra of high-mass bioparticles never anaylzed before. Those bioparticles were selected with reference to a number of biological and clinical issues.

  • ENLIGHTENED uses photons to shed light on unexplored high mass species on an individual level; this is of major biomedical significance and will expand our understanding of simple life forms.



IMPACT

  • ENLIGHTENED has enabled the EU to pioneer NEMS-based Mass Spectrometry systems for biology and the biotech industry.