Surface Plasmon Resonance Biosensor for Real-time Measurements from Living Cells – IP 1228

Previouslyestablished SPR based sensing platforms have been limited to detection ofanalytes in a prepared sample. This requires collection of analytes from thecell culture media, purification, and pretreatment of analytes for the purposeof cellular exocytosis and cellular signaling pathway studies. These redundantsteps are time consuming, and also introduce unpredictable errors to theexperiments. Among all types of cellular secretions,biomarkers are most significant for clinical, medical and biochemicalapplications. Protein biomarkers are widely involved in the development of manytypes of cancer. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a widely studiedangiogenic signal protein biomarker. Real-time, direct measurements of VEGFfrom carcinoma cells are required to understand its metabolism and for drugdevelopment. The FIU invention is a new concept of an in situ SPR biosensingsystem for realtime VEGF secretion study. A mini cell culture module has beenintegrated to the SPR system. Unlike the traditional configuration of SPRsystems for biomarker detection, living cells are cultured in a customized SPRflow cell chamber, and biomarker secretion from the cells is rapidly monitoredby an immune SPR sensing device. As a model system, SKOV-3 ovarian cancer cellline was used to demonstrate VEGF secretion live time measurement. Since thenovel biosensor mimics the in vivo microenvironment of the biomarker signalingpathway, this platform possesses great potential for cellular signaling pathwaystudies and for antineoplastic drug development. Shantanu Balkundi sbalkund@fiu.edu 305-348-8061