Aptamers and Odorant Binding Proteins –
Innovative Receptors for Electronic Small Ligand Sensing
PROF. DR. WOLFGANG KNOLL & PROF. DR. CHRISTOPH KLEBER
Partner:
Prof. Frank Rosenau, Universität Ulm
Prof. Sabine Szunerits, Universität Lille
Quantitative monitoring of small analytes in clinically relevant fluids or in air remains a challenge both from a fundamental point of view as well as for practical applications.
In all cases, one is facing three major problems: (i) the sensitivity of the transducer; (ii) the selectivity needed to differentiate between competing analytes; and (iii) the suppression of non-specific binding events. When dealing with electronic sensing concepts, Graphene-based Field-Effect Transistors (gFETs) stand out for their small size, excellent electrical characteristic, and high sensitivity to near surface charges and electrical fields. Specificity to the target analyte can be integrated into gFETs via surface attachment of target-specific receptors; yet the very small Debye length in (physiological) buffer solutions limits the signal strength considerably.
gFETs in liquid gate configuration for THC sensing.
A first focus of the proposed research is the impact of the applied surface chemistry used for the immobilization of these receptor on the transducer surface and how this coupling affects the final sensing signals. A second effort addresses options for manipulating the Debye limitations by the co-assembly of polymer brushes on the sensor surface. For the extension of these studies to monitoring THC directly in air, we propose to mimic the natural mucosa by an ultrathin (a few 10 nm in thickness) hydrogel coating on top of the transistor that protects the sensitive bioorganic components against air by keeping them in a fully hydrated state, without preventing the VOCs getting access to the receptors on the sensor surface by diffusing through the hydrogel layer. The members of the DPU team are highly complementary in their expertise to tackle these complex and multidisciplinary challenge: they have been working for many years on OBPs for smell sensing, on the use of aptamers for medical biosensing, and has experts in surface immobilization of receptors and electronic sensing.
Research Directors
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Juan AllegrettoI'm Juan Allegretto, originally from Argentina. I did my PhD focusing on the synthesis and characterization of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) films, in the Soft Matter Laboratory, under the supervision of Dr. Omar Azzaroni and Dr. MatÃas Rafti. I also worked as a postdoc for 6 months in the same lab, integrating MOFs into solid-state nanochannels for microfluidic membranes with highly specific separation and ionic transport. I'm currently employed by DPU as Junior Researcher, being the Project lead of the ESPRIT project "Tailoring Plasmonics & MOFs: Synergy for Odorant sensing" from FWF, on which I'm working under the mentoring of Dr. Jakub Dostalek in the Biosensor Technologies group.
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Naoto Asai Ph. DNaoto Asai is a full-time Junior Researcher at the LiST (International Laboratory for Life Sciences and Technology) research group at the Danube Private University. His research focuses on the development of optical biosensors for the detection of biomarkers. He joined this group to take part in a project entitled Digital Plasmon Biosensor (DIPLAB). His core research interest is to improve biosensing performance through cutting-edge technologies utilizing material science, biotechnology, and computer science. He received a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Kansai University, a master's degree in Engineering, and a doctor degree's in Engineering from the Graduate School of Kansai University.
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Dr. Hannes DörflerDr Hannes Dörfler is a chemist by training and received his PhD from the Molecular Systems Biology Department at the University of Vienna. After a three-year postdoctoral phase at the company Boehringer Ingelheim in Germany where he was working on Omics-based biomarkers, he joined DPU as a staff scientist. Hannes Dörfler has expertise in biochemistry and pharmaceutical development, and also works with multivariate statistical analysis of big data towards pattern recognition and biological interpretation.
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Dr. Jakub DostalekOptical biosensor technologie for biomarker analysis Jakub Dostalek received his PhD in 2006 from the Charles University in Prague and worked as a research assistant at the Institute of Photonics and Electronics, Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) until 2006. After his postdoctoral training and spending one year as a project leader at Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz in 2008, he moved to the Austrian Institute of Technology in Vienna in 2009, where he worked from 2015 as senior scientist until 2023. Since 2020, he serves as a lecturer at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences in Vienna. In 2021, he assumed senior researcher position at the Institute of Physics, CAS, in Prague. From 2023 he is active in LiST at Donau Private University. His research interests concern combined aspects of nanophotonics and biomaterials research applied in optical sensors and biosensors, and light management in thin film optical devices. Near-field and guided wave optics, plasmonics, biointerfaces, amplification strategies in optical spectroscopy, biomolecular interaction analysis. Analytical technologies for rapid and sensitive detection of chemical and biological species relevant to medical diagnostics.
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Katharina Schmidt Ph. DKatharina is an ambitious PhD student with the aim to develop plasmonic biosensors to observe well-seperated single molecules for ultrasensitiv cancer biomarker detection at the Danube Private University in the LiST Laboratory under the supervision of Dr. Jakub Dostalek. She achieved her individual Master's degree in Nanobioscience at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, as well as her Bachelor in Food- and Biotechnology.