Novel optical biosensors for environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics

Year: 2010

Assoc. Prof. Jiří Homola, Ph.D., DSc.

Diffusion of inorganic and biological worlds represents an important paradigm of modern science and technology. Optical biosensors combine human-made optical sensing devices with biological molecules to investigate interactions among the molecules or detect target molecules of interest. Devices enabling rapid and sensitive detection of biological substances are urgently needed in many important areas, including medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring, and food safety. Researchers at the Institute of Photonic and Electronics, AS CR, v. v. i. (IPE) have developed novel biosensors based on optical excitation of surface plasmons. These biosensors incorporate original high-performance sensing platforms, microfluidic systems for sample collection and delivery to the sensor and specific biomolecular receptors (e.g. antibodies, nucleic acids) allowing highly-specific detection of selected analytes. The biosensors developed at IPE have been applied to a wide variety of bioanalytical tasks in environmental monitoring and medical diagnostics. Researchers at IPE developed a sensitive sensor for detection of Bisphenol A (BpA) in waste water and drinking water. In collboration with researchers at VIDIA spol. s r. o. they demonstrated that the sensor is much more sensitive than the presently used methods and that it is capable of detecting BpA at concentrations below 100 pg/ml. Biomarkers relevant to cancer diagnostics - human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and activated leukocyte cell adhesion molecule (ALCAM) were detected by SPR biosensors developed at IPE in blood plasma samples with limits of detection as low as 45 ng/mL (ALCAM) and 100 ng/mL (hCG). In collaboration with researchers at the Institute of Systems Biology (Seattle, USA), IPE scientists developed a biosensor enabling detection of microRNAs. The team has demonstrated detection of microRNA related to drug-induced liver injury at concentrations down to 2 pM with an absolute amount at high attomoles.

1. Piliarik, M. –Bocková, M. –Homola, J.: Surface plasmon resonance biosensor for parallelized detection of protein biomarkers in blood plasma, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Sv. 26 (2010), 1656–1661.
2. Hegnerová, K. –Piliarik, M. – Šteinbachová, M. – Flegelová, Z. – Černohorská, H. – Homola, H.: Detection of bisphenol A using a novel surface plasmon resonance biosensor, Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry, Sv. 398 (2010), 1963–1966.
3. Hegnerová, K. – Homola, J.: Surface plasmon resonance sensor for detection of bisphenol A in drinking water, Sensors and Actuators B, Sv. 151 (2010), 177-179.
4. Šípová, H. – Zhang, S. – Dudley, A. M. – Galas, D.,– Wang, K. – Homola, J.: Surface plasmon resonance biosensor for rapid label-free detection of microRNA at subfemtomole level, Analytical Chemistry, Sv. 82 (2010) 10110–10115.
5. Špringer, T. – Piliarik, M. – Homola, J.: Surface plasmon resonance sensor with dispersionless microfluidics for direct detection of nucleic acids at the low femtomole level, Sensors and Actuators B, Sv. 145 (2010), 588-591.
6. Vala, M. –Chadt, K. – Piliarik, M. – Homola, J.: High-performance compact SPR sensor for multi-analyte sensing, Sensors and Actuators B, Sv. 148 (2010), 544-549.