Silica encapsulated SERS nanoprobe conjugated to the bacteriophage tailspike protein for targeted detection of Salmonella

Silica-encapsulated Raman-reporter embedded SERS nanoprobes, named nanoaggregate embedded beads (NAEBs), were conjugated to the Salmonella specific tailspike protein (TSP) isolated from the P22 bacteriophage to enable a highly specific and ultrasensitive optical transduction platform. We demonstrate three successful surface conjugation strategies and highlight the detection of a single bacterium using SERS.