There has been a growing interest in the use of differential sensing, in which an array of non-selective receptors are used to detect a variety of analytes.  The protein serum albumin is a good potential receptor for differential sensing because a variety of species of serum albumin are commercially available and have significant differences in amino acid sequences, thereby having variable binding affinities to analytes.  Serum albumins also have multiple binding sites capable of binding a large range of molecules.  Thus, we have developed several sensing ensembles for hydrophobic analytes, such as terpenes and fatty acids, which include several species of serum albumin, hydrophobic indicators, and assay additives.  The fluorescence modulation is measured upon analyte addition to the sensing ensemble, which is statistically analyzed to generate a fingerprint, indicative of a particular analyte.  We apply these sensing assays to pattern mixtures of analytes, such as perfumes and edible oils.

Using serum albumin for the differential sensing of hydrophobic analytes

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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