A Nanoplasmonic Portable Molecular Interaction Platform for High-Throughput Drug Screening

A fast and reliable method for the detection of molecular interactions in real-time is necessary for drug screening and control of infections or diseases. Therefore, this study aims to develop a high-throughput portable nanoplasmonic platform. This is done by integrating a nanocup array-enhanced surface plasmon resonance (NanoSPR) sensor with a standard 96-well plate or a simple eight-pillar device, which can offer rapid and label-free interaction analysis and highly sensitive binding kinetics for drug screening. To fabricate the wafer-level NanoSPR biosensor, nanoimprint lithography, electron beam evaporation, and bonding technology have been used to offer low-cost production on a mass scale. Meanwhile, a variety of ready-to-use NanoSPR biosensors are separately modified to demonstrate the high-quality binding kinetics and affinity of different biomolecular interactions. Owing to their unique optical properties, the two developed portable NanoSPR devices provide the possibility of having a portable benchtop molecular interaction instrument that is very promising for meeting the needs of personal and laboratory testing. This work may pave the way for NanoSPR biosensors to achieve high-throughput and easy-to-use molecular interaction analysis with outstanding performance.

Automated summary

This study aims to develop a high-throughput portable nanoplasmonic platform for fast and reliable detection of molecular interactions, which is necessary for drug screening and control of infections or diseases. The integration of nanocup array-enhanced surface plasmon resonance (NanoSPR) sensor with a standard 96-well plate or a simple eight-pillar device provides rapid and label-free interaction analysis and highly sensitive binding kinetics for drug screening.