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BIOSENSING

Finally, a simple solution to biofouling

Nature Nanotechnology volume 14, pages 1089–1090 (2019)Cite this article

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Composite electrodes made of nanowires and bovine serum albumin enable electrochemical protein biosensors that can be used in whole blood for a month or more.

Proteins can be selectively detected using affinity molecules, such as antibodies or aptamers. Fouling can mask that selectivity and therefore blocking non-specific protein adsorption is key to selective protein biosensing. One could ask, why not use optical methods rather than going through the effort to develop non-fouling electrodes for electrochemical sensing? Unfortunately though, optical methods are susceptible to the same issues of fouling as electrochemical methods. The obvious solution to prevent surface fouling is to chemically modify the electrode to limit non-specific adsorption of proteins1, for example, using poly or oligo (ethylene glycol) molecules. Alternatively, proteins, such as bovine serum albumin (BSA), which are often used to prevent non-specific adsorption of proteins in immunoassays, can be applied. Both strategies are reasonably effective, but also passivate the surface. Therefore, the challenge remains, and surface-sensitive electrochemical techniques that do not require electron transfer are not sensitive enough to get to low detection limits or they are too sensitive to any change at the surface and hence, not robust enough1.

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Fig. 1: The nanocomposite electrode.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    John Justin Gooding

  2. Australian Centre for NanoMedicine, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    John Justin Gooding

  3. ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology, University of New South Wales Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    John Justin Gooding

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  1. John Justin Gooding
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Correspondence to John Justin Gooding.

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Gooding, J.J. Finally, a simple solution to biofouling. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 1089–1090 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0573-0

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