Washington University

Jingyi Luan

Srikanth Singamaneni

Evan David Kharasch

Jeremiah Morrissey

Zheyu Wang

Fluorescence-based techniques are the cornerstone of modern biomedical optics with applications ranging from bioimaging at various scales (organelle to organism) to detection and quantification of a wide variety of biological species of interest. However, feeble fluorescence signal remains a persistent challenge in meeting the ever-increasing demand to image, detect and quantify biological species of low abundance. Disclosed herein are simple and universal methods based on a flexible and conformal elastomeric film adsorbed with plasmonic nanostructures, referred to as 'plasmonic skin' or “plasmonic patch”, that provide large and uniform enhancement of fluorescence on a variety of surfaces, through an “add-on-top” process. The novel fluorescence enhancement approach presented here represents a disease-, biomarker-, and application-agnostic ubiquitously-applicable fundamental and enabling technology to improve the sensitivity of existing analytical methodologies in an easy-to-handle and cost-effective manner, without changing and/or minimally altering the original procedures of the existing techniques.

Plasmonic patch as a universal fluorescence enhancer

The present disclosure is directed to microneedle patches for direct sampling and ultrasensitive detection of protein biomarkers in dermal interstitial fluids. The microneedle patches are comprised of polymers with high protein absorption capability (e.g. polystyrene) and are modified with capture biorecognition elements that are specific to target analytes in the interstitial fluid (ISF). Systems and methods are further provided for detection of a target ISF analyte obtained by in vivo sampling of the ISF using a microneedle patch.

Materials and methods for implementing immunoassay on microneedle patch for detection and quantification of bioanalytes in interstitial fluid

Fluorescence-based techniques are the cornerstone of modern biomedical optics with applications ranging from bioimaging at various scales (organelle to organism) to detection and quantification of a wide variety of biological species of interest. However, feeble fluorescence signal remains a persistent challenge in meeting the ever-increasing demand to image, detect and quantify biological species of low abundance. Disclosed herein are simple and universal methods based on a flexible and conformal elastomeric film adsorbed with plasmonic nanostructures, referred to as 'plasmonic skin' or 'plasmonic patch', that provide large and uniform enhancement of fluorescence on a variety of surfaces, through an &#x201c;add-on-top&#x201d; process. The novel fluorescence enhancement approach presented here represents a disease-, biomarker-, and application-agnostic ubiquitously-applicable fundamental and enabling technology to improve the sensitivity of existing analytical methodologies in an easy-to-handle and cost-effective manner, without changing and/or minimally altering the original procedures of the existing techniques.

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St. Louis, MO, United States of America

Jingyi Luan