| The ability to control the biomolecular interactions is important for developing bioanalytical probes used in biomolecule and biomarker detections. This work aims at a fundamental understanding of the interactions and reactivities involving DNA, miRNA, and amino acids using gold-based nanoparticles as nanoprobes, which has implications for developing new strategies for the early detection of diseases, such as cancer, and controlled delivery of drugs. Surface modifications of the nanoprobes with DNA, miRNA, and amino acids and the nanoprobe directed biomolecular reactivities, such as complementary-strand binding, enzymatic cutting and amino acid interactions, have been investigated. Among various analytical techniques employed for the analysis of the biomolecule-nanoprobe interactions, surface enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (SERS) has been demonstrated to provide a powerful tool for real time monitoring of the DNA assembly and enzymatic cutting processes in solutions. This demonstration harnesses the "hot-spot" characteristic tuned by the interparticle biomolecular-regulated interactions and distances. The assembly of gold nanoparticles has also been exploited as sensing thin films on chemiresistor arrays for the detection of volatile organic compounds, including biomarker molecules associated with diabetes. Important findings of the nanoprobes in delivering miRNA to cells, detecting DNA hybridization kinetics, discerning chiral recognition with enantiomeric cysteines, and sensing biomarker molecules with the nanostructured thin films will be discussed, along with their implications to enhancing sensitivity, selectivity and limits of detection. |
