Ultrasensitive Label-Free Nanosensing and High-Speed Tracking of Single Proteins

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• 作者：Matz Liebel ; James T. Hugall ; Niek F. van Hulst
• 刊名：Nano Letters
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：February 8, 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：17
• 期：2
• 页码：1277-1281
• 全文大小：330K
• ISSN：1530-6992

文摘

Label-free detection, analysis, and rapid tracking of nanoparticles is crucial for future ultrasensitive sensing applications, ranging from understanding of biological interactions to the study of size-dependent classical-quantum transitions. Yet optical techniques to distinguish nanoparticles directly among their background remain challenging. Here we present amplified interferometric scattering microscopy (a-iSCAT) as a new all-optical method capable of detecting individual nanoparticles as small as 15 kDa proteins that is equivalent to half a GFP. By balancing scattering and reflection amplitudes the interference contrast of the nanoparticle signal is amplified 1 to 2 orders of magnitude. Beyond high sensitivity, a-iSCAT allows high-speed image acquisition exceeding several hundreds of frames-per-second. We showcase the performance of our approach by detecting single Streptavidin binding events and by tracking single Ferritin proteins at 400 frames-per-second with 12 nm localization precision over seconds. Moreover, due to its extremely simple experimental realization, this advancement finally enables a cheap and routine implementation of label-free all-optical single nanoparticle detection platforms with sensitivity operating at the single protein level.