NER: Bioengineering of Implantable Nanosize Optical Sensing Elements by Controlled Radical Polymerization

University Of Akron, Akron OH

Investigators

Abstract

In this Nanoscale Exploratory Research (NER), co-supported by the Divisions of Materials Research and of Bioengineering and Environmental Systems, a new nanofabrication is proposed for developing nano-composite polymer materials for biomedical sensing. These materials will be produced by controlled radical polymerization/copolymerizaiton using cross-linkable self-assembled monolayers on gold colloidal nanoparticles as templates. The resulting shell-crosslinked core-shell nanoparticles are designed for making long-term implantable biosensors that may be used as "tattoo dyes" for noninvasive repetitive or real-time optical readout. The objective of this proposal is to create nano-sized, affinity sensing interfaces for glucose that are capsulated within biocompatible polymer hydrogel shells. The polymer shells will minimize nonspecific bindings at the molecular recognition site and improve the longevity and biocompatibility of the glucose sensor. The small size of the capsules and the large effective sensing surface should allow for improvements in the selectivity, dynamic range, and mass transport (speed) of affinity-based biosensing interfaces in general. This method will also greatly improve the structural homogeneity of the sensing interfaces by pre-organizing the sensing elements on nanoparticle surfaces. The nanophotonic properties of the template gold nanoparticles will be utilized as optical detection methods and for selective structural characterization of the proposed encapsulated molecular recognition interfaces.