Collaborative Research: Enhanced Circular Dichroism Sensing of Biomolecules Using Nanoparticles

合作研究：利用纳米粒子增强生物分子的圆二色性感知技术术语：拟议的项目旨在利用非手性金属或半导体纳米粒子（NPs）增强和调节手性生物分子的圆二色性（CD）信号。CD是检测和分析手性化合物及其相互作用的首选技术。CD光谱灵敏度的显著增强，加上将CD信号转移到更长的波长的能力，将允许在生物相关浓度下检查生物分子结构以及超分子生物识别现象，同时减少不必要的重叠。非手性NPs和邻近的手性分子之间的电子耦合有望提高灵敏度和模块化。我们将制备手性分子功能化的非手性NPs，并研究其结构和实验CD特性。我们将进行CD光谱的理论模拟，以获得手性生物分子覆盖的金属和半导体NPs中诱导CD起源的详细结构和机制见解。这是首次设计和优化非手性金属和半导体NPs来专门增强手性分子的CD。该项目将进一步加深我们对非手性金属和半导体NPs中诱导热感活性的起源的理解，并将对生物传感和热感纳米材料领域产生直接影响。外行术语：圆二色（CD）光谱学允许检测手性生物分子并研究它们的相互作用。该项目将开发新的方法，利用纳米尺寸的金属或半导体颗粒作为CD信号的有效放大器，提高CD检测的灵敏度和分辨率。增强的信号检测将极大地有利于检测和研究低浓度和复杂的生物活性分子混合物，这是目前方法难以探索的。

Proposal: 1403947/1403226PI: Balaz, Milan/Dzyuba, SergeiCollaborative Research: Enhanced Circular Dichroism Sensing of Biomolecules Using NanoparticlesTechnical terms: The proposed project aims to utilize achiral metallic or semiconductor nanoparticles (NPs) to enhance and modulate circular dichroism (CD) signal of chiral biomolecules. CD is the preferred technique for detection and analysis of chiral compounds and their interactions. Significant enhancement of the sensitivity of CD spectroscopy coupled with the ability to shift CD signals to longer wavelengths will allow examining structures of biological molecules as well as supramolecular biorecognition phenomena at biologically relevant concentrations with minimal amount of unwanted overlaps. The enhanced sensitivity and modularity is anticipated to rise from the electronic coupling between achiral NPs and chiral molecules in their proximity. We will prepare achiral NPs functionalized with chiral molecules and study their structure and experimental CD characteristics. We will perform theoretical simulations of CD spectra to gain detailed structural and mechanistic insights into the origins of induced CD in metallic and semiconductor NPs capped with chiral biomolecules. This is the first time that the achiral metallic and semiconductor NPs will be designed and optimized to specifically enhance CD of chiral molecules. The project will further enhance our understanding of the origin of induced chiroptical activity in achiral metallic and semiconductor NPs and will have an immediate impact on the fields of biosensing and chiroptical nanomaterials.Layman terms: Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy allows to detect chiral biomolecules and study their interactions. The project will develop novel methods that enhance the sensitivity and resolution of CD detection by utilizing metallic or semiconductor particles of nanometer size as potent amplifiers of CD signal. Enhanced signal detection will be strongly beneficial for the detection and study of low concentration and complex mixture of biologically active molecules that are difficult to explore by current methods.