SURFACE ENHANCED FLUORESCENCE NANOTAGS FOR ULTRASENSITIVE MULTIPLEXED ASSAY SYST

晚期发现是癌症存活率低的主要原因。纳米技术支持的检测方法能够以比当前检测方法高得多的灵敏度检测癌症的早期标志物。现有的检测方法使用带有有机荧光团或量子点的荧光探针，这两种方法都有局限性。有机荧光团具有有限的亮度和光稳定性，降低了灵敏度和有效的信号定量。量子点具有毒性和不规则闪烁以及宽发射光谱，这降低了复用水平的可能性。我们将开发一种新的超亮和超稳定的荧光探针，表面增强荧光（SEF）纳米标签，以提高荧光癌症检测的灵敏度。self纳米标签的纳米工程将荧光团放置在等离子体纳米粒子表面附近，可使光发射增加100倍，并显着提高探针的光稳定性。SEF探针将被设计成针对癌症标记物的抗体功能化。SEF纳米标签将询问含有分析物的溶液，并在互补的趋化物微阵列上进行检测。sef纳米标签的亮度、光稳定性和检测灵敏度将与现有探针进行比较。这些超亮和超稳定的SEF纳米标签很容易适应现有的基于荧光的癌症诊断，具有更高的灵敏度。

Late detection is the primary cause of poor survival rates from cancer. Nanotechnology-enabled assays can detect early markers of cancer with much higher sensitivity than current detection methods. Existing assays use fluorescent probes with organic fluorophores or quantum dots, both of which have limitations. Organic fluorophores have limited brightness and photostability, reducing sensitivity and effective signal quantitation. Quantum dots exhibit toxicity and irregular blinking as well as broad emission spectra which reduces the level of multiplexing possible. We will develop a new class of ultrabright and ultrastable fluorescence probes, Surface Enhanced Fluorescence (SEF) Nanotags, to improve the sensitivity of fluorescence-based cancer detection. Nanoengineering of the SEF-nanotags to place fluorophores near the surface of plasmonic nanoparticles increases the light emission by up to a factor of 100X and significantly increases probe photostability. SEF probes will be functionalized with antibodies engineered to target cancer markers. The SEF nanotags will interrogate an analyte-containing solution and be detected on a microarray of complementary chemotropes. The brightness, photostability, and detection sensitivity of the SEF-nanotags will be compared to existing probes. These ultrabright and ultrastable SEF nanotags are easily adapted to existing fluorescence-based cancer diagnostics with improved sensitivity.