Surface Chemistries for high sensitivity, low burden Waveguide

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The focus of the studentship is to develop the immobilisation andsurface modification chemistries for successful attachment of biologicalrecognition elements to waveguide surfaces so that their functionalityand stability are optimised, and the interferences from non-specificbinding of species also present in the analyte medium are minimised.The waveguide enhanced Raman spectroscopy (WERS) uses a carefullydesigned planar waveguide geometry in which a Ta2O5 film of carefullycontrolled thickness is deposited on a suitable substrate. Ta2O5 is chosenbecause of its high optical index. In addition to having a high index,Ta2O5 is also biocompatible , stable in solution, and can be modifiedusing chlorosilane chemistry or alkyl phosphates . One of the majorchallenges to be addressed will be to apply, and extend these, surfacemodification chemistries on the waveguide structures and apply theseto the immobilization of the antibodies. Once the immobilization hasbeen achieved the second challenge is to apply these surfaces forbiosensing in real samples. This will require the optimisation of thesurface chemistry and the design of suitable assay protocols.