Abstract

Antibody-antigen recognition enables antibody-conjugated nanostructures to serve as plasmonic biosensors with tunable specificity. However due to the instability of antibodies, these biosensors are susceptible to changes in the environment such as heat and aridity, leading to constraints on the transportation and handling of these sensors. Here we establish a method using a metal-organic framework crystal to preserve biosensor activity under severe environmental conditions, including exposure to high temperatures, an organic solvent and a proteolytic agent. After zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) crystals formed for 12 hours on a biosensor of gold nanorods conjugated with a model antibody, rabbit IgG, 80% of the antibody activity is successfully retained after incubation at 60 °C for 24 hours. We investigated the change of preservation ability with respect to the growth of ZIF-8 film. Furthermore, in comparison with silk fibroin films, which showed similar function in previous studies, ZIF-8 films demonstrate stronger preservation ability in various conditions.

Committee Chair

Srikanth Singamaneni

Committee Members

Srikanth Singamaneni, Guy M. Genin, Jeremiah J. Morrissey

Comments

Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/K7VM49PD

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Author's Department

Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science

Author's School

McKelvey School of Engineering

Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

Fall 12-21-2016

Language

English (en)

Share

COinS