Idea to Innovation Phase 1: Development of stable, field-deployable silver-based surface plasmon resonance biosensors

金具有良好的生物相容性、抗氧化性和较大的表面等离子激元(SPR)效应，是生物分子检测的常用方法，被广泛用作生物传感材料。然而，黄金是所有贵金属中最昂贵的，它的提取对环境造成了极大的破坏。银和铜比金便宜几个数量级，在基于SPR的生物传感中分别具有更高或相似的灵敏度。然而，这些金属没有被广泛使用，主要是因为生物分子与银和铜之间的界面困难，以及这些金属对氧化的敏感性。值得注意的是，银的SPR效应比金大得多，这不仅使其成本更低，而且在基于SPR的生物传感中也更加敏感。如本文所述，我们将利用Crudden和Horton实验室的最新发现，设计基于银和铜的生物传感器，这些传感器易于与生物分子连接，并具有抗氧化性。这些新的生物传感器将大大降低成本，并提高SPR生物传感器用于医疗诊断的可能性，因为基于银或铜的传感器芯片将是一次性的。有效的银或铜SPR芯片还将在消费品成本成问题的领域开辟新市场，例如南美和印度的新兴市场。加拿大SPR系统制造商和我们技术的潜在客户AffinitéInstruments对开发低成本生物传感器非常感兴趣，因为他们的主要重点领域是护理点诊断，而当前传感器的价格对于这个市场来说是令人望而却步的。我们实验室目前的技术还不够先进，不足以供该公司或其他潜在客户进行评估，但有了这笔赠款的资金，我们将能够充分推进技术，开始与潜在客户进行产品评估。BioNavis是一家总部设在芬兰的潜在客户，对SPR的替代金属有着广泛的兴趣，该公司也同意支持这一提议，并对本文提出的扩大非金基生物传感器市场的可能性充满热情。**

Gold is widely employed as a material for biosensing since it is biocompatible, resistant to oxidation, and has a large surface plasmon (SPR) effect, which is the common method used to detect biomolecules. However, gold is the most expensive of all noble metals and its extraction is highly damaging to the environment. Silver and copper are orders of magnitude cheaper than gold and have a higher or similar sensitivities in SPR-based biosensing, respectively. However, these metals are not widely employed due primarily to difficulties interfacing biomolecules with silver and copper, and the sensitivity of these metals to oxidation. It is notable that silver has a substantially greater SPR effect than gold, which would make it not just cheaper but also much more sensitive in SPR-based biosensing. As described herein, we will design biosensors based on silver and copper that are easily interfaced with biomolecules and are resistant to oxidation by taking advantage of recent discoveries in the Crudden and Horton labs. These new biosensors will dramatically decrease costs and improve the likelihood that SPR biosensing could be used in point-of-care diagnostics since silver or copper-based sensor chips would be disposable. Effective silver or copper SPR chips will also open up new markets in areas where consumable costs are an issue, such as emerging markets in South America and India. Affinité Instruments, a Canadian manufacturer of SPR systems and a potential customer of our technology, is very much interested in the development of low-cost biosensors as their primary area of focus is point-of-care diagnostics and current sensors are prohibitively priced for this market. The current technology from our lab is not at a sufficiently advanced level for evaluation by this company or other potential customers, but with funds from this grant, we will be able to advance the technology sufficiently to start product evaluations with potential customers. BioNavis, a potential customer based in Finland with extensive interest in alternative metals for SPR have also agreed to support this proposal and are enthusiastic about the possibility of expanding the market for non-gold-based biosensors as proposed herein.**