Graphene/Si-Based Biosensor for Glioblastoma Cancer Cell Detection

In this paper, a glioblastoma cancer cell biosensor is proposed based on mono-layer graphene/(n-type)Si Schottky junction. Human fibroblast cells are used as a control to study the behavior of the sensor in the presence of healthy cells. It is shown that in the presence of two different glioblastoma cancer cell lines (U87 and T98G) and human fibroblast cells, the photoconductivity of this junction drastically changes under illumination with different wavelengths of light (380 nm to 850 nm). The relative change in photoconductivity of the sensor can not only distinguish the two glioblastoma cancer cell lines, but can also easily differentiate these cancer cells from healthy human fibroblast cells. The proposed sensor is cheap and easily fabricated, and can open a new avenue for detection and differentiation of cancer cells.