SBIR Phase I: Development of Resonant Waveguide-Grating Elements for High Throughput Screening of Proteins

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种用于高通量筛查应用的高灵敏度光学传感器系统。所提出的传感器系统的核心是周期性介质波导，其中的共振漏模式由入射光波激励。生物分子层附着在传感器表面产生光谱移位，测量这些移位可以在没有荧光标记的情况下以高灵敏度和高特异性识别结合事件。两个主要的偏振态都有独立的共振峰，以准确地检测生物材料结合事件。此功能使您能够区分传感器表面发生的平均厚度变化和平均密度变化。高分辨率(从窄的、定义良好的共振峰)和高灵敏度使准确检测事件的可能性很高。拟议的新型生物和化学传感器将因其在药物开发、基因组学、环境监测和国土安全方面的效用而为社会带来好处。事实上，它们在没有化学标签的情况下运行，允许实时观察和研究不受干扰的生化过程，并且没有引入任何外来物质。这将导致对化学和生物化学分子过程的更深入了解，并可能导致药物和化学开发的重大进展。

This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project will develop a highly sensitive optical sensor system for use in high-throughput screening applications. The heart of the proposed sensor system is a periodic dielectric waveguide in which resonant leaky modes are excited by an incident optical wave. Attachment of biomolecular layers on the sensor surface yields spectral shifts that are measured to identify the binding event with high sensitivity and specificity without fluorescent tags. Both major polarization states have independent resonant peaks to accurately sense a biomaterial binding event. This feature enables the capability to distinguish between average thickness changes and average density changes occurring at the sensor surface. High resolution (from narrow, well defined resonance peaks) and high sensitivities permit a high probability of accurately detecting an event. The new class of bio- and chemical sensors proposed will provide benefits to society due to their utility in drug development, genomics, environmental monitoring, and homeland security. The fact that they operate without chemical tags permits observation and study of unperturbed biochemical processes in real-time, and no foreign substance are introduced. This will result in a deeper understanding of chemical and bio-chemical molecular processes and may lead to significant advances in drug and chemical development.