Metal Enhancement for a Near-IR Fluorescence Scanner

描述(申请人提供)：接近金属表面的荧光分子，包括银膜和金岛膜，产生更强的荧光强度，同时增加光稳定性和缩短荧光寿命。这些金属岛薄膜因其在低量子产率荧光团中提高荧光强度的能力而被广泛研究，但关于这些金属岛是否能够增强用于蛋白质组和基因组应用的荧光染料的性能的信息很少。此外，金属表面特性对荧光染料增强的影响还没有得到系统的研究，更不知道这些金属岛膜的重现性和寿命。 这项提议的总体目标是通过使用金属岛膜来增强近红外染料的荧光。近红外荧光的另一个优点是显著降低了当前可用的阵列技术中使用的可见光波长所产生的背景。我们将从重现性和寿命两个方面对生产金属岛膜的技术进行表征。我们还将探索可能增强荧光强度的金属岛几何结构。这项工作将增加我们关于金属表面如何可以重复产生的知识，并将为更广泛地理解如何利用金属增强荧光来降低样品检测的限度奠定基础。从长远来看，这项研究的目标将是开发一种微阵列载玻片或衬底，它使用金属增强荧光来降低检测极限，同时使用现有的仪器。

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.