Whispering Gallery Mode Biosensing of a single virus

Downloadable through www.mp3l.org

We report the label-free, real-time optical detection of Influenza A virus particles. Binding of single virions is observed from discrete changes in the resonance frequency/wavelength of a whisperinggallery mode excited in a microspherical cavity. We find that the magnitude of the discrete wavelength-shift signal can be sufficiently enhanced by reducing the microsphere size. A reactive sensing mechanism with inverse dependence on mode volume is confirmed in experiments with virus-sized polystyrene nanoparticles. By comparing the electromagnetic theory for this reactive effect with experiments, the size and mass 5.2E(-16)g of a bound virion are determined directly from the optimal resonance shift.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Whispering Gallery Mode
• Biosensor
• Biosensing
• WGM
• virus
• detection
• fiber optic

[mp3lwgm]

The paper in Faraday Discussions may be requested

from the web site of the MicroParticle PhotoPhysics Lab

(mp3l.org)

[mp3lwgm]

An article appeared in Faraday Discussions of the Royal Society in 2007 which described the theory and conditions for single virus detection.

S. Arnold*, R. Ramjit, D. Keng, V. Kolchenko and I. Teraoka

Faraday Discuss. 137, 65–83, discussion 99–113 (2007).

*affiliation: Polytechnic Institute of New York University

[truescience1]

I found the PNAS article of this interesting idea:

F. Vollmer*, S. Arnold, D. Keng “Single Virus Detection from the Reactive Shift of a Whispering-Gallery Mode” PNAS , 105 (Dec 2008)

* affiliation: The Rowland Institute at Harvard