US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Jason William Soares

Diane Steeves

Charlene M Mello

Steven Arcidiacono

An optical biosensing platform for the real-time detection of the occurrence of a binding event, the optical biosensing platform comprising a nanocrystalline zinc oxide (nano-ZnO) substrate having a surface and being capable of emitting photoluminescence and a surface modifier formed integral with at least a portion of the surface of the nano-ZnO substrate, wherein the surface modifier is capable of binding to a biomolecule and wherein when the surface modifier binds with a biomolecule, a change is induced in the emitted photoluminescent properties of the nano-ZnO substrate, thereby enabling the detection of a binding event.

Optical biosensing platform utilizing nanocrystalline zinc oxide

A method for discovering one or more peptides adapted for specific binding to a microorganism of interest. The method comprises (i) identifying an antimicrobial peptide having antimicrobial activity against the microorganism of interest, (ii) generating a library of first generation mutants of the antimicrobial peptide, each of the first generation mutants differing from the antimicrobial peptide by a small number of amino acid substitutions, additions or deletions, (iii) screening the library of first generation mutants for those first generation mutants that bind to the microorganism of interest, (iv) determining the peptide sequences of those first generation mutants that bind to the microorganism of interest, and (v) if necessary, repeating steps (ii) through (iv) for one or more successive generations of mutants until one or more consensus peptide sequences emerge.

Growing community of inventors

Framingham, MA, United States of America

Jason William Soares