Biomolecular-Mediated Plasmonic Sensors for Chemical and Biosensing in Complex Media

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Chemical and biological sensors are important in diverse fields including medical biodiagnostics, national security, environmental protection and agriculture quality control. A range of sensing techniques has been explored but one shortcoming of many sensing platforms is the false positive response from interfering species. Interference in an assay is most commonly reduced by purification processes or by employing surface modifications that prevent non-specific binding interactions. New approach to address this challenge can decrease the cost and complexity of the sensor, shorten the time of analysis and circumvent the need of synthetically demanding chemicals for providing non-fouling surface properties. Our research aims to achieve designed optical response that will differentiate between target analyte from interfering molecules by integrating conformational adaptive biomolecules with plasmonic nanomaterials. The optical properties will arise from the coupling interaction of closely-linked nanoparticles, and changes in the shapes and sizes of the nanoparticles. Importantly, discriminating between target binding and non-specific adsorption of interfering species will be possible because the optical signals generated by the competing processes will be physically different. By exploring engineered biomolecules that can bind to a variety of analytes, these optically active bio-nanomaterials will be developed for screening potential drug molecules, monitoring local chemical environment in cellular processes, and as economical portable diagnostics for on-site field-based detections.