Biomolecule sensing is a rapidly growing field that broadly impacts medical diagnostics, drug discovery, and environmental detection of biological agents. Though many biosensors are commercially available, they commonly require expensive equipment and highly trained users. Here we present an easy to use photonic crystal-based sensing platform for the detection of biomolecules. The sensing platform is comprised of a polymer hydrogel impregnated with a crystalline colloidal array of particles that optically diffracts within the visible spectrum. The hydrogel is specifically designed to reversibly swell in the presence of an analyte, triggering a shift in optical diffraction and a visible color change of the hydrogel. This sensing platform has been successfully shown to detect both kinase activity and phosphatase activity through the reversible phosphorylation of a target peptide immobilized within the hydrogel, with changes in optical diffraction occurring on the timescale of minutes to hours [1]. Such hydrogels may be used as a sensing platform to identify kinase inhibitors or activators of kinase pathways, as well as for assaying kinase selectivity. More broadly, such hydrogels may be used to detect DNA hybridization or to assay the activity of other enzymes that catalyze chemical modifications that alter substrate charge, thus providing a platform to screen a broad spectrum of protein or biomolecule modifications. [1] K. I. MacConaghy, C. I. Geary, J. L. Kaar, M. P. Stoykovich, "Photonic crystal kinase biosensor," J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 136, 6896-6899 (2014).

Photonic crystal platform for biomoleculer sensing

249th National Meeting (2015)

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