Biophotonics: In-vitro single-virus near-field spectroscopy

本文提出的方法是通过研究单个病毒来避免对不同亚群进行平均，并在受控的生理环境中获得时间分辨的结构信息。为此，由于单个病毒的样本数量极少，因此需要利用光谱增强技术。功能化金纳米颗粒引入病毒腔，将起到光谱增强剂的作用。单衣壳的体外扩张将由pH变化诱导，并通过两种光谱技术进行监测：表面等离子体共振光谱和化学特异性表面增强拉曼散射光谱。目的是获得衣壳膨胀和中间过渡数量的定量测量。

0322767DragneaThe approach proposed here is to avoid averaging over different sub-populations by studying single viruses and to obtain time-resolved structural information in a controlled physiological environment. To this end, because of the extremely small amount of sample in a single virus, utilization of spectroscopic enhancement techniques is required. Functionalized gold nanoparticles introduced into the viral cavity, will play the role of spectroscopic enhancers. In-vitro expansion of the single capsid will be induced by pH variations and monitored by two spectroscopic techniques: surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy and chemically-specific surface enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy. The goal is to obtain a quantitative measure of the capsid expansion and the number of intermediate transitions.