Plasmonic substrates for multiplexed protein microarrays with femtomolar sensitivity and broad dynamic range

Scott M. Tabakman, Lana Lau, Joshua T. Robinson, Jordan Price, Sarah P. Sherlock, Hailiang Wang, Bo Zhang, Zhuo Chen, Stephanie Tangsombatvisit, Justin A. Jarrell, Paul J. Utz, Hongjie Dai
2011 Nature Communications  
Protein chips are widely used for high-throughput proteomic analysis, but to date, the low sensitivity and narrow dynamic range have limited their capabilities in diagnostics and proteomics. Here we present protein microarrays on a novel nanostructured, plasmonic gold film with near-infrared fluorescence enhancement of up to 100-fold, extending the dynamic range of protein detection by three orders of magnitude towards the fm regime. We employ plasmonic protein microarrays for the early
more » ... n of a cancer biomarker, carcinoembryonic antigen, in the sera of mice bearing a xenograft tumour model. Further, we demonstrate a multiplexed autoantigen array for human autoantibodies implicated in a range of autoimmune diseases with superior signal-to-noise ratios and broader dynamic range compared with commercial nitrocellulose and glass substrates. The high sensitivity, broad dynamic range and easy adaptability of plasmonic protein chips presents new opportunities in proteomic research and diagnostics applications.
doi:10.1038/ncomms1477 pmid:21915108 pmcid:PMC3402035 fatcat:v55vm4lakne7tmone75vr3e35i