Diffracion gratings of smart hydrogels as transducers for the label- free detection of biomolecules María Isabel Lucío 1 , Aitor Cubells-Gómez 1 , Paola Zezza 1 , Andy Hernández Montoto 1 , Estrella Fernández 1 , María-José Bañuls 1,2 , Ángel Maquieira 1,2 1 Instituto Interuniversitario de Investigación de Reconocimiento Molecular y Desarrollo Tecnológico (IDM), Universitat Politècnica de València, Universitat de València, Spain, 2 Departamento de Química, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain. Hydrogel-based diffraction gratings have shown great performance as transducers in the label-free sensing of pH, metal ions and glucose and in the analysis of IgGs by competitive assays. 1 The analytical signal is generated after the illumination of the hydrogel-based gratings with a laser beam or a white light and it depends on their periodicity and refractive index. As the hydrogels are responsive, i. e. they incorporate molecules able to recognise specific targets, 2 their response depends on this interaction. However, despite the potential application of these systems, their use in biosensing is still not extensive, and new appropriate design of materials is needed for this purpose. In this communication, a label-free sensing system based on surface relief diffraction gratings fabricated with bioresponsive hydrogels will be shown. The system allows the selective detection of C-Reactive protein (CRP) in diluted human serum with a LOD sufficient for clinical applications. In addition, recoveries of around 100 % are obtained when human serum certified for CRP is analysed. 3 The same approach is also used for the label-free detection of anti-BSA antibodies after the optimization of new suitable hydrogels. Finally, our most recent approaches to improve the analytical performance of the system will also be introduced. Those imply the optimization of new hydrogels for the detection of different biomolecules at lower concentrations. Acknowledgements This work was financially supported by the E.U. FEDER, the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (AdBiHol-PID2019-110713RB-I00) and Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2020/094 and GRISOLIAP/2019/143). M. I. Lucío acknowledges the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y Universidades for her Juan de la Cierva Incorporación grant (IJC2018-035355-I). References
1. Lucío, M.I. et al. Anal Bioanal Chem 2022 , 414, 993–1014. 2. Koetting, M. C. et al. Mater. Sci. Eng. R Reports 2015 , 93 , 1–49. 3. Lucío, M.I. et al. Biosens. Bioelectron 2021 , 193 , 113561-113570.
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