152 / 2024-05-10 21:28:45

Ultrasensitive phase-induced plasmonic sensing techniques for biomarker detection

Plasmonics, Biosensing, SPR, nanomaterials

Plasmonic sensing techniques have found application across diverse fields including chemical, environmental, and biomedical analysis. Nevertheless, the detection of analytes with small sizes or at extremely low concentration levels remains challenging. Moreover, there is an increasing demand for the development of a versatile and multiplexed biosensing platform with sample manipulation capabilities to cater to a broader range of application scenarios.

Recently, we have significantly enhanced the performance of a SPR biosensing platform by adding an atomically thin phase change material to induce a giant lateral position shift called Goos–Hänchen (GH) shift (Nano-micro letters 13, 1-11). The system has successfully realized the detection of TNF-α cancer biomarkers at sub-attomole level. Moreover, the direct real-time detection of cancer-derived exosomes directly from cell supernatants has been demonstrated. (Biosensors and Bioelectronics: X 15, 100391)

Furthermore, our group has effectively exploited the unique properties of MXene to enhance SPR performance (Nanophotonics 12 (21), 4055-4062). Based on this biosensing scheme, we realized the ultrasensitive detection of target miRNA with a detection limit down to 10 fM. More importantly, single-base mismatched miRNA can be easily distinguished from the target miRNA according to the sensing signal. Remarkably, this plasmonic biosensor is capable of detecting miRNA in complex media such as 100 % human serum samples without compromising the detection sensitivity.

The enhanced plasmonic sensing platform based on novel 2D materials has the ability of detecting small biomolecules with extremely low concentration levels, which holds great potential in various biological applications and clinical diagnostics.