Biotechnology-Nanotechnology Hybrid Materials for Diagnostic Devices in Health and Agriculture

依赖于荧光检测的免疫吸附夹心法(包括ELISA法)已成为医学检测、药物发现、生物技术和细胞成像的关键技术。抗体结合的高选择性，再加上荧光光谱的高灵敏度，使各种人类、动物和植物疾病的诊断测试取得了巨大的进步。通常，这些免疫吸附分析使用固定的抗体来从生物样本中捕获目标生物标记物，然后固定第二个带有荧光标记的抗体。为了最大化标记的荧光输出，许多研究人员已经开始利用金属增强荧光(MEF)作为提高分析灵敏度的一种手段。在这里，金属纳米粒子在抗体附近的共同定位导致了荧光输出的等离子体增强(大约100倍)。事实上，MEF检测技术在工业和诊断应用方面的到来是迫在眉睫的。该项目旨在通过应用最先进的生物偶联化学来控制固定抗体相对于纳米颗粒的方向，来提高这些基于MEF的检测系统的灵敏度。预计这种统一的抗体定向，所有结合区域都指向“外部”(远离纳米颗粒)，既可以提高它们对极低水平分析物的结合能力，又可以通过确保荧光团和纳米颗粒之间的最佳距离来最大化MEF。这个项目将专注于发展对生物技术部门至关重要的分析技术、合成化学、光谱学和纳米技术方面的专业知识。该项目由诊断开发公司Aeirtec Ltd.提供部分资金，研究人员将花时间在Aeirtec的实验室进行安置。

Immunosorbent "sandwich" assays (including ELISA) that rely on fluorescence detection have become a key technology in medical testing, drug discovery, biotechnology and cellular imaging. The high selectivity of antibody binding, combined with the high sensitivity that is enabled by fluorescence spectroscopy, has led to huge advances inthe diagnostic testing of a variety of human, animal and plant diseases. Typically, these immunosorbent assays employ an immobilised antibody to capture the target biomarker from the biological sample, followed by the immobilisation of a second antibody bearing a fluorescent label.To maximise the fluorescence output from the label, many researchers have started to harness metal enhanced fluorescence (MEF), as a means to improve assays ensitivity. Here, the co-location of a metallic nanoparticle in the vicinity of the antibody results in a large plasmonic enhancement of fluorescence output (in the order of 100-fold). Indeed, the arrival of MEF assay technology in the industrial and diagnostic application context is imminent.This project aims at improving the sensitivity of these MEF-based assay systems, by the application of state-of-the-art bioconjugate chemistry to control the orientation of the immobilised antibodies with respect to the nanoparticle. It is expected that such uniform antibody orientation, with all binding domains pointing "outwards" (away from the nanoparticle) would both improve their binding capacity against very low levels of analyte, as well as maximise MEF by ensuring the optimum distance between fluorophore and nanoparticle.This project will focus on the development of expertise in assay technology , synthetic chemistry, spectroscopy and nanotechnology - underpinning skills that are critical for the biotechnology sector. The project is part-funded by Aeirtec Ltd., a diagnostics development company, and the researcher will spend time on a placement at Aeirtec's laboratories.