Silk fibroin, while best known in the textile industry for its strength, is an extremely versatile material that has been utilized for an array of applications such as waveguides, diffraction gratings and biocompatible wound dressings. Of particular interest is its ability to enhance the stability and performance of antibody-based biosensors. Previously, our lab has shown that an array of different covalently immobilized α-helical antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) can detect and discriminate between lipopolysaccharide (LPS) molecules from different strains of Gram negative bacteria. However, the sensitivity and long term viability of the sensor was insufficient. Our objective is to utilize thin silk fibroin and silk fibroin/polymer blend films to augment the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor to improve sensor performance and stability as has been done with antibody-based sensors. Our progress on silk and silk/polymer film characterization, SPR sensor development, optimization, and LPS detection performance will be discussed. The information gained from these studies may be applied in the development of clinically relevant reusable sensor technology.

Investigation of silk fibroin thin films for the improvement of bioactive peptide-based biosensors

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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