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，产生增加的荧光强度沿着增加的光稳定性和减少的荧光寿命。这些金属岛膜已被大量研究，因为它们能够增加低量子产率荧光团的荧光强度，但几乎没有关于这些金属岛增强蛋白质组学和基因组学应用中使用的荧光染料的性能的能力的信息。此外，还没有系统地研究金属表面特性对荧光染料增强的影响，更不知道这些金属岛膜的再现性和寿命。 该提案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。近红外荧光提供了显著降低由当前可用阵列技术中使用的可见波长产生的背景的额外优点。我们将表征生产金属岛膜的技术的再现性和寿命。我们还将探索可能增强荧光强度的金属岛几何形状。这项工作将增加我们对金属表面如何可重复产生的知识，并将为更广泛地理解金属增强荧光如何用于降低样品检测限奠定基础。从长远来看，本研究的目标将是开发一种微阵列载玻片或基底，其使用金属增强荧光来降低检测限，同时使用当前可用的仪器。

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.