Micron-sized surface enhanced Raman scattering reporter/fluorescence probe encoded colloidal microspheres for sensitive DNA detection

A new type of optical probes, featuring surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and fluorescence spectra dual-mode encoding, has been reported in this article. Based on the uniform micrometer-sized melamine resin/Ag nanoparticles (MRM/Ag-NPs) composite microspheres, the SERS reporters and fluorescent probes were successfully fixed onto the different layers of the MEM/Ag-NPs microspheres, which supported the sensitive DNA detecton. The two spectroscopic methods commonly considered to be contradictive to each other, yet the optical signals were separable in the experiments. The dual-encoding strategy and single microsphere detecton method put the number of available independent codes to be rough the multiple of those available in the two optical detection channels, which increases far more rapidly than the summation of the two channels. As a proof of cencept, the utility of this dual spectrum mode SERS-fluoresecence encoded microsphere (SFEM) was demonstrated in a specific DNA detection using complimentary ssDNA functionalized magnetic beads as the DNA capturing and separation agents. Excellent encoding results were demonstrated from the decoding of the SERS and fluorescence signals of the SFEM. The method appears to be general in scope and we expect that the SERS-fluoresecence encoded microspheres system is applicable to multiplex bioassays of a variety of biomolecules.