| A new generation of fiber-optic sensors based on Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) enables the detection of biomolecules at biologically relevant levels with enough stability in complex solutions to monitor the analytes with minimal sample preparation. The commercially available Biacore(TM) SPR system offers great sensitivity for saline solutions, but fails to monitor complex solutions and is not suitable for bedside or in vivo applications. A fiber-optic based SPR (FO SPR) sensor is small enough to enable these applications. Also FO-SPR is proven to be sensitive enough to detect biological levels of human markers. The non-specific signal, which currently limits the application of SPR in human blood, is reduced using novel surface coatings. The antibodies used for molecular recognition are attached to these polysaccharides, biocompatible polymers and co-functionalized thiols. They improve the sensor response to the human markers while decreasing the amount of non-specific signal from the serum proteins compared to the currently commercially available systems. This technology is applied to the early detection of myoglobin and cardiac Troponin I present in blood for the diagnostic of a myocardial ischemia, survival motor neuron protein present I white-blood cells for the diagnostic of childhood spinal muscular atrophy, and Interleukin 1, Interleukin 6, and Tumor Necrosis Factor a present in cell culture media for the investigation of chronic wound healing. This sensor template was used to monitor the photochromic switching of two photochromic systems and to monitor the excess properties of binary mixtures. |
