Surface plasmon resonance biosensors for medical diagnostics and food safety

Year: 2009

Assoc. Prof. Jiří Homola, Ph.D., DSc.


The need for rapid and sensitive detection of chemical and biological substances exists in numerous important sectors, including medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, food safety and security. Current analytical methods cannot meet this need as they are limited to centralized laboratories, they are laborious, time consuming and require rather complex and expensive equipment. Therefore, in the last two decades we have witnessed vast research and development activity aiming at the development of a new generation of analytical tools enabling rapid (bio)chemical analysis in the field. Researchers at the Institute of Photonic and Electronics, AS CR, v. v. i. (IPE) have developed new surface plasmon resonance (SPR) biosensors for rapid and sensitive detection of chemical and biological analytes in the field. These sensors are based on the combination of novel sensing platforms with high sensitivity developed at IPE and special biorecognition elements (e.g. antibodies, peptides, nucleic acids) allowing recognition and detection of specific analytes. Biosensors developed at IPE have been applied to detection of analytes implicated in food safety and medical diagnostics. These analytes include potential cancer and Alzheimer disease biomarkers (ALCAM, transgelin, 17β-HSD10) and foodborne pathogens and toxins (Escherichia coli and tetrodotoxin). For instance, the SPR biosensor for detection of tetrodotoxin developed and evaluated in collaboration with the University of Washington, Seattle and U.S. Food and Drug Administration was demonstrated to be able to detect tetrodotoxin in the puffer fish matrix down to 1 ng/ml.

biosenzor pathomilk

  1. Krištofiková, Z. – Bocková, M. – Hegnerová, K. – Bartoš, A. – Klaschka, J. – Říčný, J. – Řípová, D. – Homola, J.: Enhanced levels of mitochondrial enzyme 17ß-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 10 in patients with Alzheimer disease and multiple sclerosis. Molecular Biosystems, sv. 5, (2009), s. 1174-1179.
  2. Hegnerová, K. – Bocková, M. – Vaisocherová, H. – Krištofiková, Z. – Říčný, J. – Řípová, D. – Homola, J.: Surface plasmon resonance biosensors for detection of Alzheimer disease biomarkers. Sensor and Actuators B, sv. 139, (2009), s. 69-73.
  3. Ladd, J. – Allen, T. – Piliarik, M. – Homola, J. – Jiang, S.: Label-free detection of cancer biomarker candidates using surface plasmon resonance imaging. Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, sv. 393, (2009), s. 1157-1163.
  4. Piliarik, M. – Párová, L. - Vaisocherová, H. – Homola, J.: Surface plasmon resonance imaging for parallelized detection of protein biomarkers. Proc. SPIE, sv. 7356, (2009), s. 73560D-73560D-8.
  5. Vala, M. – Etheridge, S. – Roach, J. A. – Homola, J.: Long-range surface plasmons for sensitive detection of bacterial analytes. Sensors and Actuators B, sv. 139, (2009), s. 59–63.
  6. Homola, J. – Hegnerová, K. – Vala, M.: Surface plasmon resonance biosensors for detection of foodborne pathogens and toxins. Proc. SPIE sv. 7167, (2009), s. 716705-716713.
  7. Piliarik, M. – Párová, L. – Homola. J.: High-throughput SPR sensor for food safety – Biosensors & Bioelectronics, sv. 24, č. 5, (2009), s. 1399-1404.

IPE carries out fundamental and applied research in the scientific fields of photonics, optoelectronics and electronics. In these fields, IPE generates new knowledge and develops new technologies.

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