SBIR Phase I: Development of Resonant Waveguide-Grating Elements for High Throughput Screening of Proteins

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将开发一种高灵敏度的光学传感器系统，用于高通量筛选应用。所提出的传感器系统的心脏是一个周期性的介质波导，其中谐振漏模被激发的入射光波。生物分子层在传感器表面上的附着产生光谱位移，测量该光谱位移以在没有荧光标签的情况下以高灵敏度和特异性识别结合事件。两种主要极化状态具有独立的共振峰，以准确地感测生物材料结合事件。该特征使得能够区分在传感器表面处发生的平均厚度变化和平均密度变化。高分辨率（从窄的，明确定义的共振峰）和高灵敏度允许准确检测事件的高概率。由于其在药物开发、基因组学、环境监测和国土安全方面的实用性，所提出的新型生物和化学传感器将为社会带来好处。它们在没有化学标签的情况下操作的事实允许实时观察和研究未受干扰的生化过程，并且没有引入外来物质。这将导致对化学和生物化学分子过程的更深入理解，并可能导致药物和化学开发的重大进展。

This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project will develop a highly sensitive optical sensor system for use in high-throughput screening applications. The heart of the proposed sensor system is a periodic dielectric waveguide in which resonant leaky modes are excited by an incident optical wave. Attachment of biomolecular layers on the sensor surface yields spectral shifts that are measured to identify the binding event with high sensitivity and specificity without fluorescent tags. Both major polarization states have independent resonant peaks to accurately sense a biomaterial binding event. This feature enables the capability to distinguish between average thickness changes and average density changes occurring at the sensor surface. High resolution (from narrow, well defined resonance peaks) and high sensitivities permit a high probability of accurately detecting an event. The new class of bio- and chemical sensors proposed will provide benefits to society due to their utility in drug development, genomics, environmental monitoring, and homeland security. The fact that they operate without chemical tags permits observation and study of unperturbed biochemical processes in real-time, and no foreign substance are introduced. This will result in a deeper understanding of chemical and bio-chemical molecular processes and may lead to significant advances in drug and chemical development.