NANOPOROUS 3D SUBSTRATES FOR LABEL-FREE TRACE RAMAN DETECTION OF BIOMOLECULES

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。这项由生物传感/CBET项目获得的国家科学基金奖支持了乔治亚理工学院的Vladimir V. Tsukruk教授对贵金属纳米结构聚落修饰的纳米多孔3D膜的基本拉曼散射特性的研究。本项目设计的表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）衬底可用于超灵敏、无标记的生物流体中痕量生物标志物探测。综合分析不同的有机拉曼标记物和不同尺寸和形状的纳米孔结构，并结合电磁建模建立该SERS平台的设计原则。从这些基础研究中获得的知识将用于优化具有高增强因子的两类重要生物分子，免疫球蛋白G抗体和前列腺特异性抗原的3D SERS底物。这些纳米孔SERS结构具有较大的比表面积，可用于多光谱响应热点的系留；透明圆柱形纳米结构孔径、壁厚、波导性能的精确控制高稳健性和灵活性，并且成本非常低。该项目的最终目标是实现高SERS增强的飞摩尔量生物分子的鲁棒性和可重复性痕量检测。该项目将侧重于加强对研究生的培训，强调他们参与高度跨学科的研究。为了增强这种体验，并增加攻读科学和工程高级学位的学生人数，PI将与几个招聘项目合作，包括GT PURA项目，GT-NSF SURF Site和NSF REU项目。PI继续强调招募代表性不足的学生进行暑期实习，这是他擅长的领域。具体而言，Tsukruk将开发一门新的软纳米材料本科课程，该课程将结合纳米材料的基础知识和应用。总体而言，PI将继续努力将一个代表性不足的群体——女性的参与提高到35%的稳定水平，这比国内工程学校传统的20%的STEM女生人数要高得多。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).0930781TsukrukThis NSF award by Biosensing/CBET program supports work by Professor Vladimir V. Tsukruk from Georgia Institute of Technology on fundamental Raman scattering properties of nanoporous 3D membranes decorated with aggregates of noble metal nanostructures. Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates designed in this project will be available for ultra-sensitive, label-free probing of trace amount of biomarkers in a biological fluid. Comprehensive analysis of different organic Raman markers and nanoporous structures with variable sizes and shapes will be accompanied with electromagnetic modeling to establish design principles for this SERS platform. The knowledge gained from these fundamental studies will be utilized to optimize 3D SERS substrates with high enhancement factor for two important classes of biomolecules, immunoglobulin G antibody and prostrate specific antigen. These nanoporous SERS structures possess the advantage of large specific surface area available for the tethering of hot spots with multispectral response; precise control of nanopore diameters and their wall thickness, waveguiding capabilities of transparent cylindrical nanostructures; high robustness and flexibility, and very low cost. The ultimate goal of this project is to achieve robust and reproducible trace detection of femto-mole amount of biomolecules with high SERS enhancement. The project will be focusing on enhanced training of graduate students with emphasis on their involvement in highly interdisciplinary research. To enhance this experience and to increase the number of students pursuing advanced degrees in science and engineering the PI will be working with several recruiting programs, including the GT PURA Program, GT-NSF SURF Site and the NSF REU Programs. The PI places continued emphasis on recruiting underrepresented students for summer internships, an area that he has excelled in. Specifically, Tsukruk will develop a new undergraduate course on soft nanomaterials which will combine fundamentals and applications of nanomaterials. Overall, the PI will continue efforts to increase the participation of one underrepresented group, women to a steady level of 35%, which is much higher comparing to conventional 20% STEM female student population in domestic engineering schools.