GOALI: Ultrahigh Sensitivity and Selectivity in Surface Plasmon Resonance Detection

目的：表面等离子体共振(SPR)生物传感器被开发来检测和表征生理环境中生物分子之间的相互作用，其灵敏度和选择性可与荧光生物传感器相媲美，并且实时、分辨率接近或小于毫秒。智能优点：SPR生物传感器因其实时跟踪生理环境中的生物相互作用而迅速崛起。现有的SPR生物传感器不能在其灵敏度极限下工作，这是由于技术噪声而不是任何根本的限制。与传感器配置集成的有源电子噪声抑制技术被开发为在系统噪声的基本极限下工作。通过使用纳米和介孔无机结构材料，提高了灵敏度和选择性。纳米多孔载体为增加受体的附着密度提供了高比表面积。表面能和孔大小(形状)可以被操纵，以提供根据大小、形状和形态对目标物质的物理选择，并在恶劣环境中提供一个坚固的平台。广泛的影响：由于其敏感性、稳定性和简单性，所提出的方法非常适合广泛的技术应用。SPR传感器具有更高的灵敏度和选择性，除了水相中的动力学测量外，还可以检测气相中高度稀释的病原体。它可以用来绘制导致疾病状态的生化路径图，监测患者的临床相关分析物，瞄准药物的开发，并检测感染性病原体和环境毒素。

Objective:Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors are being developed to detect and characterize interactions between biomolecules in their physiological environments with sensitivity and selectivity comparable to fluorescent biosensors, and in real time at time resolutions approaching or less than milliseconds.Intellectual Merit:SPR biosensors have rapidly emerged as technology of choice because they follow biological interactions in physiological environments in real time. Existing SPR biosensors do not operate at their limits of sensitivity, due to technical noise and not to any fundamental limitations. Active electronic noise suppression techniques integrated with sensor configurations are developed to operate at the fundamental limits of system noise. The sensitivity and selectivity are improved by using nano- and mesoporous inorganic structured materials. Nanoporous supports provide high surface areas for increased attachment density of receptors. The surface energy and pore sizes (shapes) can be manipulated to provide physical selection of target substances by size, shape and morphology, and provide a robust platform in harsh environments.Broader Impacts: The approach proposed is highly amenable to widespread technological use, due to its sensitivity, stability, and simplicity. A SPR sensor with increased sensitivity and selectivity will allow, in addition to kinetic measurements in the aqueous phase, the detection of highly diluted pathogens in the gas phase. It could be used to map biochemical pathways that lead to disease states, monitor patients for clinically relevant analytes, target the development of drugs, and detect infectious agents and environmental toxins.