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Tuesday, 27th October 2009 (2734 views)

A team of researchers has used gold nanoparticles to create a new, ultra-sensitive technique for analysing life-sustaining protein molecules.

The US National Science Foundation (NSF) said the procedure could "profoundly change" the methodology of biomolecular studies and could lead to a "new path" for the effective diagnosis and early treatment of complex diseases.

Researchers from Boston University and Tufts University led by professor Hatice Altug developed the infrared spectroscopy technique to identify the "vibrational fingerprints" of extremely small quantities of proteins, described by the NSF as the "machinery involved in maintaining living organisms".

Previous infrared spectroscopy methods had not been sensitive enough to detect the different vibrations of different molecules, especially in small samples.

Ahmet Ali Yanik, one of the researchers involved in the project, said the team used gold nanoparticles to develop "efficient plasmonic nanoantennas" to amplify the ability to pick up a molecule's inherent frequency.

The method has increased the vibrational signatures of the molecules by more than 100,000 times, Professor Altug noted.

She added that as the technique is "quite general", it can be adapted pick up the infrared fingerprints of molecules other than proteins to, for example, detect dangerous chemicals.

 

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