A streptavidin-SOG chimera for all-optical immunoassays

Immunological detection has been developed into a sensitive and versatile technique and is based on two requisite elements: targeting antibodies and an indicator, usually in the form of horseradish peroxidase or alkaline phosphatase. The specificity and turnover rate of these enzymes provide an efficient means of signal amplification, but both require a stopping agent to prevent overdevelopment, which limits scalability to mechanized fluidic systems. As an alternative, we present a fully optical detection system based on a streptavidin-singlet oxygen generating chimeric protein that produces singlet oxygen from blue light. When used with trans-1-(2'-methoxyvinyl)pyrene, the photosynthetic streptavidin combines indicator development and reporting in sufficiently distinct visible wavelengths while retaining the sensitivity and scale of enzymatic systems that use horseradish peroxidase. By combining photosensitive development and detection into one system, we can enable future, highly parallel immunological testing to be controlled with the spatial and temporal precision of light.