Covid-19 Research

Research Article

OCLC Number/Unique Identifier:

Highly Sensitive Liquid Crystal-Based Optical Biosensor for Quantitative Detection of Proteins

Biology Group    Start Submission

Fiorentini L, Barboza R, Logovatovskaya M, Rocchetti E, Mariani P and Lucchetti L

Volume6-Issue11
Dates: Received: 2025-11-17 | Accepted: 2025-11-25 | Published: 2025-11-28
Pages: 1784-1793

Abstract

We report on highly sensitive label free optical biosensing of proteins based on nematic liquid crystals. The principles of biosensing are related to the change in the liquid crystal alignment induced by biomolecules adsorbed on the cell inner surface, which can be easily detected with a polarizing optical microscope. Although this approach is well known, we propose here an experimental strategy that allows us to reach a detection limit of the order of 10-13 g/ml, orders of magnitude higher than the one reported in literature for the same kind of optical biosensors. Furthermore, our method leads to assess a well-defined, specific dependence of protein concentration on cell birefringence, for rapid quantitative biosensing. The proposed biosensor can additionally be used for the detection of antibodies.

FullText HTML FullText PDF DOI: 10.37871/jbres2230


Certificate of Publication




Copyright

© 2025 Fiorentini L, et al. Distributed under Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0

How to cite this article

Fiorentini L, Barboza R, Logovatovskaya M, Rocchetti E, Mariani P, Lucchetti L. Highly Sensitive Liquid Crystal-Based Optical Biosensor for Quantitative Detection of Proteins. J Biomed Res Environ Sci. 2025 Nov 28; 6(11): 1784-1793. doi: 10.37871/jbres2230, Article ID: JBRES2230, Available at: https://www. jelsciences.com/articles/jbres2230.pdf


Subject area(s)

References


  1. DeGennes PG, Prost J. The physics of liquid crystals. Oxford Science. 1974.
  2. Collings PJ. Liquid crystals: Nature's delicate phase of matter. Princeton Science Library. 1990.
  3. Gupta VK, Skaife JJ, Dubrovsky TB, Abbott NL. Optical amplification of ligand-receptor binding using liquid crystals. Science. 1998 Mar 27;279(5359):2077-80. doi: 10.1126/science.279.5359.2077. PMID: 9516101.
  4. Kim SR, Shah RR, Abbott NL. Orientations of liquid crystals on mechanically rubbed films of bovine serum albumin: a possible substrate for biomolecular assays based on liquid crystals. Anal Chem. 2000 Oct 1;72(19):4646-53. doi: 10.1021/ac000256n. PMID: 11028624.
  5. Khan M, Khan AR, Shin JH, Park SY. A liquid-crystal-based DNA biosensor for pathogen detection. Scientific Reports. 2016. doi: 10.1038/srep22676.
  6. Popov P, Mann EK, Jákli A. Thermotropic liquid crystal films for biosensors and beyond. J Mater Chem B. 2017;5:5061-5078. doi: 10.1039/C7TB00809K.
  7. Qu R, Li G. Overview of Liquid Crystal Biosensors: From Basic Theory to Advanced Applications. Biosensors (Basel). 2022 Mar 29;12(4):205. doi: 10.3390/bios12040205. PMID: 35448265; PMCID: PMC9032088.
  8. Wu PC, Pai CP, Lee MJ, Lee W. A Single-Substrate Biosensor with Spin-Coated Liquid Crystal Film for Simple, Sensitive and Label-Free Protein Detection. Biosensors (Basel). 2021 Oct 6;11(10):374. doi: 10.3390/bios11100374. PMID: 34677330; PMCID: PMC8533856.
  9. Tang J, Li Z, Xie M, Luo Y, Yu J, Chen G, Chen Z. Liquid crystal based label-free optical sensors for biochemical application. Photonic Sensors. 2024. doi: 10.1007/s13320-024-0707-3.
  10. Wu PC, Pai CP, Lee MJ, Lee W. A Single-Substrate Biosensor with Spin-Coated Liquid Crystal Film for Simple, Sensitive and Label-Free Protein Detection. Biosensors (Basel). 2021 Oct 6;11(10):374. doi: 10.3390/bios11100374. PMID: 34677330; PMCID: PMC8533856.
  11. Hsu WL, Lee MJ, Lee W. Electric-field-assisted signal amplification for label-free liquid-crystal-based detection of biomolecules. Biomed Opt Express. 2019 Sep 6;10(10):4987-4998. doi: 10.1364/BOE.10.004987. PMID: 31646024; PMCID: PMC6788601.
  12. Lin C-H, Lee MJ, Lee W. Bovine serum albumin detection and quantitation based on capacitance measurements of liquid crystals. App Phys Lett. 2016. doi: 10.1063/1.4962169.
  13. Chang TK, Tseng YY, Wu PC, Lee MJ, Lee W. Optical and flexoelectric biosensing based on a hybrid-aligned liquid crystal of anomalously small bend elastic constant. Biosensors and Bioelectronics. 2023. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2023.115314.
  14. Mattiasson B, Hedström M. Capacitive biosensors for ultra-sensitive assays. Trends in Analytical Chemistry. 2016. doi: 10.1016/j.trac.2015.10.016.
  15. Huang Y, Yao Y, Wang Y, Chen L, Zeng Y, Li L, Guo L. Strategies for Enhancing the Sensitivity of Electrochemiluminescence Biosensors. Biosensors (Basel). 2022 Sep 11;12(9):750. doi: 10.3390/bios12090750. PMID: 36140135; PMCID: PMC9496703.
  16. Majorek KA, Porebski PJ, Dayal A, Zimmerman MD, Jablonska K, Stewart AJ, Chruszcz M, Minor W. Structural and immunologic characterization of bovine, horse, and rabbit serum albumins. Mol Immunol. 2012 Oct;52(3-4):174-82. doi: 10.1016/j.molimm.2012.05.011. Epub 2012 Jun 6. PMID: 22677715; PMCID: PMC3401331.
  17. Lucchetti L, Fabrizio MDi, Francescangeli O, Simoni F. Colossal optical nonlinearity in dye doped liquid crystals. Optics Communications. 2004;233:417-424. doi: 10.1016/j.optcom.2004.01.057.
  18. Crowther JM, Jameson GB, Hodgkinson AJ, Dobson RCJ. Structure, oligomerisation and interactions of β‑lactoglobulin. In: Corredig M, editor. Milk proteins – from structure to biological properties and health aspects. London: IntechOpen; 2016. doi: 10.5772/62992.
  19. Born M, Wolf E. Principles of Optics. 7th ed. USA: Cambridge University Press; 2001.


Comments


Swift, Reliable, and studious. We aim to cherish the world by publishing precise knowledge.

  • Brown University Library
  • University of Glasgow Library
  • University of Pennsylvania, Penn Library
  • University of Amsterdam Library
  • The University of British Columbia Library
  • UC Berkeley’s Library
  • MIT Libraries
  • Kings College London University
  • University of Texas Libraries
  • UNSW Sidney Library
  • The University of Hong Kong Libraries
  • UC Santa Barbara Library
  • University of Toronto Libraries
  • University of Oxford Library
  • Australian National University
  • ScienceOpen
  • UIC Library
  • KAUST University Library
  • Cardiff University Library
  • Ball State University Library
  • Duke University Library
  • Rutgers University Library
  • Air University Library
  • UNT University of North Texas
  • Washington Research Library Consortium
  • Penn State University Library
  • Georgetown Library
  • Princeton University Library
  • Science Gate
  • Internet Archive
  • WashingTon State University Library
  • Dimensions
  • Zenodo
  • OpenAire
  • Index Copernicus International
  • icmje
  •  International Scientific Indexing (ISI)
  • Sherpa Romeo
  • ResearchGate
  • Universidad De Lima
  • WorldCat
  • JCU Discovery
  • McGill
  • National University of Singepore Libraries
  • SearchIT
  • Scilit
  • SemantiScholar
  • Base Search
  • VU
  • KB
  • Publons
  • oaji
  • Harvard University
  • sjsu-library
  • UWLSearch
  • Florida Institute of Technology
  • CrossRef
  • LUBsearch
  • Universitat de Paris
  • Technical University of Denmark
  • ResearchBIB
  • Google Scholar
  • Microsoft Academic Search