An oligofluorene truxene based distributed feedback laser for biosensing applications

Abstract

The first example of an all-organic oligofluorene truxene based distributed feedback laser for the detection of a specific protein-small molecule interaction is reported. The protein avidin was detected down to 1 μg mL(-1) using our biotin-labelled biosensor platform. This interaction was both selective and reversible when biotin was replaced with desthiobiotin. Avidin detection was not perturbed by Bovine Serum Albumin up to 50,000 μg mL(-1). Our biosensor offers a new detection platform that is both highly sensitive, modular and potentially re-usable.

Distributed feedback lasers based on perylenediimide dyes for label-free refractive index sensing

“…2, inset). This Sb value is comparable to those reported for other single-layer waveguide DFB sensors (Sb = 20 nm/RIU at n = 1.33) [16,24], which have demonstrated their capability to detect biomolecules [16,41]. This indicates that our PDI-O-based DFB sensors have sufficient sensitivity to be used for biomolecule detection.…”

Organic distributed feedback laser for label-free biosensing of ErbB2 protein biomarker

“…The photostability half-life is defined as the time or the number of pump pulses at which the emitted laser intensity decays to half of its maximum value. Its sensitivity in the biological range (n = 1.33) is S b = 32 nm/RIU [16], which is comparable to those reported for other singlelayer waveguide DFB biosensors [6,10,12,13]. The sensor resolution was calculated by fitting the central wavelength emission by a center of mass calculation [15], obtaining a resolution of 0.8 pm and a LOD of 2.5 x 10 -5 RIU [16].…”

“…A LOD of 14 ng/mL was calculated as the concentration corresponding to a signal three times the standard deviation of the negative samples (which was considered as the measurement error). To the best of our knowledge (see related literature presented in Section 1, i.e., [6,10,12,13]), this is the lowest concentration LOD reported for a DFB-based protein biosensor. Since the refractive index sensitivity of the fabricated DFB laser is comparable to other published DFB biosensors, this better sensitivity could be because of an improved surface functionalization, a better molecular recognition (due to high affinity antibodies) or to a larger size of the ErbB2 protein analyte (185 kDa) which implies a larger refractive index change upon binding.…”

“…In a later work [12], with the same kind of DFB devices they detected 34 nM (600 ng/mL) rabbit IgG. Haughey et al [13] fabricated DFB lasers based on an oligofluorene truxene active film deposited by spincoating on top of the grating engraved on an epoxy resist and no TiO 2 layers. They studied the avidin-biotin interaction and demonstrated detection down to 1 µg/mL of avidin using a biotin-functionalized DFB.…”

“…In addition, the recent demonstration of a DFB laser optically pumped by a Light Emitting Diode (LED) [11] can lead to compact biosensing devices and promising setups for their commercialization. A thorough review of the literature only shows a few reports of organic DFB lasers used as biosensing devices [6,10,12,13]. Lu et al [6] demonstrated the capability of a DFB device to detect 3.4 nM (60 ng/mL) of human immunoglobulin G (IgG) protein.…”