Highly Sensitive and Specific Detection of Aflatoxin B1 Implementing Aptamers and Gold Nanoparticle Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance

Rapid diagnostic tools represent a significant growth industry in agriculture. Current antibody based approaches have implicit limitations due to the cost and performance of the antibodies. The use of single stranded DNA (aptamers) as mimics of antibodies has the potential

to overcome many of these constraints. A key disadvantage to the use of aptamers is that they bind with lower affinity to their targets than antibodies. This means that we need to develop detection platforms that have a higher level of sensitivity than current antibody

detection methods. Dr. Mittler is a global leader in the development of detection methods based on optical properties of immobilized gold nano‐particles and evanescent wave analysis. This project represents an opportunity to apply her discovery efforts to an applied commercial opportunity.

Faculty Supervisor:

Dr. Silvia Mittler

Student:

Asad Rezaee

Partner:

NeoVentures Biotechnology Inc.

Discipline:

Physics / Astronomy

Sector:

Medical devices

University:

Western University