Method for detecting an analyte molecule

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for detecting the presence or amount of an analyte, said method comprising (a) coupling the analyte to a carrier molecule, wherein the carrier molecule is larger in size, electrically charged and/or polar, to form an analyte:carrier molecule complex; (b) contacting the analyte:carrier molecule complex of (a) with an analyte-binding molecule coupled to a semiconducting nanostructure; and (c) determining the change in conductance upon binding of the analyte:carrier molecule complex to the analyte-binding molecule and correlating the determined change in conductance to the presence or amount of the analyte. Alternatively, the analyte:carrier molecule complex of (a) is immobilized on the nanostructure and the immobilized analyte:carrier molecule complex is contacted with the analyte-binding molecule.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.