Metal Enhancement for a Near-IR Fluorescence Scanner

描述（由申请人提供）：靠近金属表面的荧光分子，包括银和金岛膜，会产生更高的荧光强度，同时增加光稳定性和降低荧光寿命。这些金属岛膜在低量子产率荧光团中提高荧光强度的能力已被大量研究，但关于这些金属岛在蛋白质组学和基因组学应用中提高荧光染料性能的能力的信息很少。此外，金属表面特性对荧光染料增强的影响还没有系统的研究，对这些金属岛膜的再现性和寿命的了解更少。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Fluorescent molecules that are in close proximity to metallic surfaces, including silver and gold island films, produce increased fluorescence intensity along with increased photostability and decreased fluorescent lifetimes. These metal island films have been largely studied for their ability to increase fluorescent intensities in low quantum yield fluorophores, but little information exists on the ability of these metal islands to enhance the performance of fluorescent dyes used in proteomic and genomic applications. Moreover, the effects of metallic surface characteristics on the enhancement of fluorescent dyes have not been systematically studied, and even less is known about the reproducibility and longevity of these metal island films. The overall objective of this proposal is to enhance fluorescence of near-infrared dyes through the use of metal island films. Fluorescence in the near-infrared offers the additional advantage of significantly lowering the background generated by the visible wavelengths used in currently available array technologies. We will characterize techniques for producing metal island films with respect to reproducibility and longevity. We will also explore metal island geometry that may enhance fluorescence intensity. This work will add to our knowledge of how metallic surfaces can be reproducibly generated and will lay the foundation for a broader understanding of how metal enhanced fluorescence can be used to lower the limit of sample detection. In the long term, the goal of this research will be to develop a microarray slide or substrate that uses metal enhanced fluorescence to decrease the limit of detection while using currently available instrumentation.