Plasmonic nanochip for SERS chemical and biomedical sensing

The development of rapid, easy-to-use and highly sensitive DNA detection methods has received increasing interest for medical diagnostics and research purposes. Our laboratory has developed several chip-based DNA biosensors including molecular sentinel-on-chip (MSC), multiplex MSC, and inverse molecular sentinel-on-chip (iMS-on-Chip). These sensors use surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) plasmonic chips, functionalized with DNA probes for single-step DNA detection. The sensing mechanisms is based on the hybridization of target sequences and DNA probes, resulting in a displacement of a SERS reporter from the chip surface. This distance increase results in change in SERS signal intensity from the reporter, thus indicating the capture, and therefore the presence, of the target nucleic acid sequence. The nucleic acid probes and the SERS chip, which compose the sensing platform, were designed for single-step DNA detection. The target sequences are detected by delivery of a sample solutions on a functionalized chip and characterization of the SERS signals, after 1 - 2 hr incubation. These techniques avoid labeling of the target sequence or washing to remove unreacted components, making them easy-to-use and cost effective. The use of SERS chip for medical diagnostics was demonstrated by detecting genetic biomarkers for respiratory viral infection and the DNA of dengue virus 4.