3D-printed biosensors in biomedical applications exploiting plasmonic phenomena and antibody self-assembled monolayers
Francesco Arcadio, Waqar Ali, Debora Bencivenga, Domenico Del Prete, Chiara Marzano, Lorena Saitta, Emanuela Stampone, Rosario Cennamo, Vincenzo Carafa, Lucia Altucci, Luigi Zeni, Gianluca Cicala, Nunzio Cennamo
Abstract
In this work, a 3D-printed plasmonic chip based on a silver-gold bilayer was developed in order to enhance the optical response of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) probe. More specifically, numerical and experimental results were obtained on the 3D-printed SPR platform based on a silver-gold bilayer. Then, the optimized probe's gold plasmonic interface was functionalized with a specific antibody directed against the p27 Kip1 protein (p27), an important cell cycle regulator. The 3D-printed plasmonic biosensor was tested for p27 detection with good selectivity and a detection limit of 55 pM. The biosensor system demonstrated performance similar to commercially available ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) kits, with several advantages, such as a wide detection range and a modular and simple-based architecture. The proposed biosensing technology offers flexible deployment options that are useful in disposable, low-cost, small-size, and simple-to-use biochips, envisaging future applications in experimental and biomedical research.