Functionalized Plasmonic Gold Nanorods On Chip for Circulating Tumor DNA Point Mutation Detection

Nanosensors utilizing the phenomenon of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) have been gaining in popularity due to improved sensitivity and wider dynamic range of optical sensors. Liquid biopsy is a minimally invasive method of analyzing disease dynamics and many technologies have been developed for research laboratory settings. However, there remains a need to simplify the workflow and expand these technologies into point-of-care clinical settings. Functionalized gold nanoparticles dispersed on-chip represent a promising solution to this problem and could also be easily multiplexed to detect many different biomarkers on a single-chip. We are focused on the KRAS G12V point mutation of pancreatic cancer as the biomarker for our versatile multiplexed functionalized nanorods on-chip platform. We demonstrate a replicable fabrication method for multiplexed nanorods on-chip with the capability of selectively sensing KRAS mutations in ctDNA across a range of concentrations, a promising step forward for point-of-care clinical applications.