Bio-Hybrid Materials for Immunoassay-Based Sensing

Abstract

AbstractThe process of encapsulating antibodies in sol-gel was used for sensing various hormones, specifically cortisol, insulin, and C-peptide. A sol-gel optical biosensor for cortisol has been developed for monitoring of crew health on-orbit during space missions. Our studies involving silica sol-gel materials with competitive immunoassays demonstrated linear calibration for cortisol in the range of 2-60 μg/dL, which covers the physiological range of cortisol blood concentration for an adult (2-28 μg/dL). The method of standard additions was used to analyze human serum samples sent to us from a NASA laboratory. Our sol-gel immunosensor values were typically within 20% of the values obtained by NASA-JSC using traditional immuno-binding techniques, with some values having less than a 5% error. Initial results are presented for sensing the hormones insulin and C-peptide.