Electrochemical - surface plasmon resonance studies of thiol decorated nanoparticles as biosensors

这笔拨款要求的设备是表面等离子体共振（SPR）光谱仪，最终将用于生物传感。生物传感器是一类用于在给定环境中识别目标生物分子的设备。医学界依靠这些传感器进行疾病的早期检测和治疗，但生物传感器在检测生物战剂方面正变得越来越有吸引力。因此，传感器的属性通常包括小型化尺寸、高特异性、多功能和无误报。随着传感器需求的不断变化，材料的创造和表征的新方法正在进行中。通常，生物识别事件是基于与底物的分子结合，存在表面修饰策略以使材料具有特定受体基团的功能化。为了增强可能的多功能性，需要多种受体群，并通过表面图案化方法使其成为可能。我们的研究重点是利用电化学技术来独特地设计和表征涂有有机受体材料的几何图形表面。我们将把我们的经验与体表面图案结合起来，以类似的方式装饰金纳米颗粒。纳米粒子与SPR光谱的耦合将使我们的检测方案超越典型的SPR研究。创造新的和改进的生物传感器可能导致新的检测限制和早期诊断和治疗疾病，从而对社会的健康和福祉产生积极影响。

The equipment requested in this grant is a Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Spectrometer that will ultimately be used in biosensing. Biosensors are a class of device engineered to recognize a target biomolecule in a given environment. The medical community has relied on these sensors for early detection and treatment of disease but biosensors are becoming increasingly attractive for the detection of biological warfare agents. As such, the attributes of a sensor often include miniaturized size, high specificity, multi-functionality and the absence of false positives. With the ever changing requirements of a sensor, new methods for the creation and characterization of the material are ongoing. Typically the bio-recognition event is based on molecular binding with a substrate and surface modification strategies exist to functionalize the material with specific receptor groups. To enhance possible multi-functionality, a variety of receptor groups is desirable and made possible through surface patterning methods. Our research focuses on the use of electrochemical techniques to uniquely design and characterize a surface coated with organic-receptor materials in a patterned geometry. We will combine our experience with surface patterning of bulk surfaces to decorate gold nanoparticles in a similar manner. Coupling the nanoparticles with SPR spectroscopy will enhance our detection schemes beyond typical SPR investigations. The creation of new and improved biosensors may lead to new detection limits and earlier diagnosis and treatment of disease thus having a positive impact on the health and well being of society.