Enabling Multiplexed and Sensitive Bioanalysis Using SERS and SESORS

Detection of specific biomolecules is central to modern biology and to medical diagnostics, where identification of a particular disease is based on biomarker identification. Many detection methods exist, and fluorescence spectroscopy, used with various assay formats, dominates the optical detection technologies. Great progress has been made in the development of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as a quantitative analytical method, in particular for the detection of biomolecules. An advantage of SERS over existing detection techniques is its ability to multiplex, which is limited when using techniques such as fluorescence. One focus of research by Karen Faulds and colleagues is on developing multiplexed bioassays using SERS to allow the simultaneous measurement of multiple species at one time.

In this presentation, Faulds demonstrates the development of new bioanalytical assays based upon SERS that have been used successfully for the detection of bacterial pathogens using modified SERS active probes. Biomolecule functionalized nanoparticles have been designed to give a specific SERS response, resulting in discernible differences in the SERS that can be correlated to the presence of specific pathogens. Faulds demonstrates the simultaneous detection and quantitation of three pathogens within a multiplex sample. She also discusses recently published work on the use of nanoparticles functionalized with resonant Raman reporter molecules for the visualization of 3D breast cancer tumor models using spatially offset Raman (SORS) combined with SERRS (SESORS).

About the presenter
Karen Faulds, Ph.D., is a Professor at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland). Her research focuses on using surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to create new approaches to bioanalysis for use in the life and clinical sciences. Her research centers around using the inherent sensitivity of SERS for the detection of target DNA or proteins using signal amplification methods to enhance the signal rather than using target amplification methods such as PCR. Her work has focused on exploiting the sensitivity of SERS for quantitative analysis of biomolecules as well as exploiting one of the key advantages of SERS, the ability to analyze multiple analytes in one sample. She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and received the Charles Mann Award for Raman spectroscopy in 2019.