QTPlasmonics - Next generation of plasmonic integrated label free biosensing including optical, electrical and thermal active controls and readouts

随着对健康相关问题的需求，生物传感器变得越来越重要，需要监测越来越多的参数。其中，等离子体生物芯片系统正变得越来越受欢迎，因为它们能够并行监测数百种表面生物相互作用，而不需要标记步骤，并实时允许访问这些相互作用的动力学。*由于等离子体系统对许多环境参数高度敏感，传统的等离子体生物传感器试图保持这些物理参数不变，因为任何变化都会导致从被测生物分子反应测量的信号发生不必要的变化。金属-电介质界面微纳米结构的最新进展为在非常精细的空间和时间尺度上对物理参数进行局部控制开辟了道路。因此，人们可以设想局部控制环境条件，以增强等离子体传感器的响应，而不是保持恒定的环境条件。这一提议的目的是通过研究所谓的纳米等离子体系统中在亚微米尺度上受控的局部电和热空间变化的影响来推动等离子体领域的发展。*最近，在复杂等离子体结构的建模和制造方面都取得了重要进展。我在未来五年的研究计划旨在通过开发新的多参数系统来利用这些进展，该系统既能够增强现有技术的能力，又能够获取关于正在研究的生物目标的补充信息。应用将不仅包括处理极低或微量浓度的标记和生物危害的传感器，而且还包括对其动力学的实验表征，特别关注酶和细胞*这一新知识将导致更好地理解和控制多物理血浆成分，以及开发下一代生物芯片传感器，旨在满足重症护理、个性化药物和药物开发中的一些最紧迫的需求。**

Biosensors are becoming more and more important as the demand on health related issues requires the monitoring of more and more parameters. Within these, plasmonic biochip systems are becoming increasingly popular thanks to their ability to monitor in parallel hundreds of surface bio-interactions without the need of a labelling step and in real time allowing accessing the kinetics of these interactions.*** Since plasmonic systems are highly sensitive to a number of environmental parameters, conventional plasmonic biosensors have sought to keep these physical parameters constant as any variations lead to unwanted changes in the signal measured from the biomolecular reaction under test. Recent progress in micro- and nano-structuring of metal-dielectric interfaces has opened the way to localized control of physical parameters at very fine space and time scales. As a result, rather than maintain constant environmental conditions, one can instead envision locally controlling environmental conditions to enhance the plasmonic sensor response. The goal of this proposal is to advance the field of plasmonics by studying the effect of controlled local electrical and thermal spatial variations at the submicron scale in so-called “nanoplasmonic” systems.*** Recently, important advances have been made in both modeling of complex plasmonic structures and their fabrication. My research program over the next five years aims at capitalizing on these advances by developing novel multi-parameter systems capable of both enhancing the capabilities of current technologies and furthermore of accessing supplementary information about the bio-targets under investigation. Applications will include not only sensors addressing markers and biohazards at very low or trace concentration but also experimental characterization of their kinetics with special attention extending to enzymes and cells*** This new knowledge will lead both to better understanding and control of multi-physics plasmonic components as well as to the development of next-generation biochip sensors designed to address some of the most pressing needs in critical care, personalized medicine and drug discovery.**