DETAILS OF THE ACHIEVEMENT
Surface plasmon resonance sensor for detection of chemical and biological species in the field
Assoc. Prof. Jiří Homola, Ph.D., DSc.
Year: 2008
In the last two decades we have witnessed an increasing effort devoted to research and development of optical biosensors and biochips [1]. Label-free biosensors have been established as a unique technology that enables direct observation of molecular interaction in real time and allows rapid and sensitive detection of molecular analytes without labeling. Biosensors based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) represent one of the most advanced label-free optical sensor technologies and have demonstrated tremendous potential for applications in areas such as genomics, proteomics, medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, food analysis, agriculture, and security [2-3]. However, the current SPR sensors are rather complex, expensive, and lack portability, and therefore, their use have been limited to centralized laboratories.

We have developed a new approach to spectroscopy of surface plasmons [3, 4], which enables construction of the first true mobile yet high-performance SPR sensors, the technology of choice for biosensing in the field. This approach is based on simultaneous excitation of surface plasmons on a special gold-coated diffraction grating via the second order of diffraction and observation of characteristic SPR feature in the first diffraction order [4]. Recently, this approach has been implemented into the first generation of high-performance SPR sensors for field use (Figure 1) [5]. The sensor consists of a miniature cartridge integrating the diffraction grating and microfluidics and a compact optical system which simultaneously acquires data from six independent sensing channels in the cartridge. It has been demonstrated that the sensor is able to measure refractive index changes as small as 3×10−7 and to detect nucleic acids in concentrations down to 200 pM [5]. The sensor technology has been licensed to PhenogeGenomics Corporation (USA).

  1. Homola, J.: Surface plasmon resonance sensors for detection of chemical and biological species, Chemical Reviews. Sv. 108, (2008), s. 462-493.
  2. Homola, J., Yee, S. S., Myszka, D.: Surface plasmon biosensors, in Optical Biosensors: Today and Tomorrow, editors F. S. Ligler, C. R. Taitt, Elsevier, (2008), s. 185-242.
  3. Taylor, A. D., Ladd, J., Homola, J., Jiang, S.: Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) Sensors for the Detection of Bacterial Pathogens, in Principles of Bacterial Detection: Biosensors, Recognition Receptors and Microsystems, editors M. Zourob, S. Elwary, A. Turner, Springer, (2008), s. 81-106.
  4. Homola, J., Telezhnikova, O., Dostálek, J.: Způsob spektroskopie povrchových plazmonů pro senzory s povrchovými plazmony a senzorový element k provádění tohoto způsobu, Patent ČR # 299489, 2008.
  5. Piliarik, M., Vala, M., Tichý, I., Homola, J.: Compact and low-cost biosensor based on novel approach to spectroscopy of surface plasmons, Biosensors & Bioelectronics, in print, doi: 10.1016/j.bios. 2008.11.003.