Advanced DNA-scale Plasmonic Vibroscopy for Nanomedicine Research

The better future of new generation medical devices is connected tightly with technological advances of natural sciences. Therefore, the rapid growth of high-precision electronic analytical devices in all areas of healthcare applications increased the demand for novel, ground-breaking concepts and approaches for nanobiotechnology, DNA-vaccine production, gene therapy development and nanomedicine in general. The necessity for high-quality input data and solid requirements for method versatility, simplicity, sensitivity, rapidness and efficiency increased interest in improving electronic, magnetic and optical detection techniques. Current commercialised methods do not reveal high expectations to tackle these challenges in the whole degree. However, nanoplasmonics holds the promise for radically improving spectroscopy-driven optical analytical systems for nanoscale-level probing of dangerous pathogens (bacteria, viral), cellular environment monitoring, antibiotic resistivity inspection, cancer diagnostics, biomacromolecule structure and quality investigation, gene-based vaccine research, DNA-mutation processes, etc. The Da Vinci project proposes novel, innovative sensing accessories enabling advanced Raman vibroscopy tool to deal with emerging biotechnology and nanomedicine analytical challenges to address existing challenges. The current practical limitations of the Raman technique will be overcome by implementing novel types of localised surface plasmon resonance nanosensors, which are expected to enhance scattering efficiency and increase sensitivity in biological macromolecules detection for several orders of magnitude. The results are expected to be generic and easily translated into other areas of research such as engineering of new analytical systems for toxic chemical metabolites detection (mycotoxins), detection of military substances (explosives, nerve gases monitoring) and food quality inspections (presence markers of pesticides and insecticides at ppb level). Lastly, the Da Vinci will lead to the further career development of project team towards outstanding excellence in the science of new generation plasmonic sensors.