Sponsor: Czech Science Foundation
Principal investigator: Hana Vaisocherová, Ph.D.
From: 2014-01-01
To: 2016-12-31
Modern diagnostics rely on rapid and sensitive detection of chemical and biological species in complex samples, such as food products (100% fruit juices, milk, etc.). A major challenge in the development of new technologies, such as Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) biosensors, is the prevention of nonspecific adsorption of molecules from complex media („biological fouling“) to sensor surfaces. There are currently only a few functionalizable low-fouling surfaces that have been successfully demonstrated; however, the biorecognition capability of these functionalized surfaces in complex media has been reported to be very poor. In this project, we explore the complex relationship between physico-chemical parameters of the low-fouling coatings (e.g. layer thickness, hydrophilicity) and their biorecognition capability for a variety of bioreceptors. We further demonstrate a novel biorecognition coating using poly(zwitterionic)antibody conjugates. Using this platform, the detection of multiple pathogens (bacteria, toxins) in food samples (100% juices, milk) will be performed.