Premium
A Photonic Crystal Protein Hydrogel Sensor for Candida albicans
Author(s) -
Cai Zhongyu,
Kwak Daniel H.,
Punihaole David,
Hong Zhenmin,
Velankar Sachin S.,
Liu Xinyu,
Asher Sanford A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201506205
Subject(s) - candida albicans , mannan , corpus albicans , self healing hydrogels , materials science , photonic crystal , detection limit , chemistry , concanavalin a , diffraction , biophysics , nanotechnology , crystallography , microbiology and biotechnology , chromatography , biochemistry , optics , biology , optoelectronics , polysaccharide , polymer chemistry , physics , in vitro
We report two‐dimensional (2D) photonic crystal (PC) sensing materials that selectively detect Candida albicans ( C. albicans ). These sensors utilize Concanavalin A (Con A) protein hydrogels with a 2D PC embedded on the Con A protein hydrogel surface, that multivalently and selectively bind to mannan on the C. albicans cell surface to form crosslinks. The resulting crosslinks shrink the Con A protein hydrogel, reduce the 2D PC particle spacing, and blue‐shift the light diffracted from the PC. The diffraction shifts can be visually monitored, measured with a spectrometer, or determined from the Debye diffraction ring diameter. Our unoptimized hydrogel sensor has a detection limit of around 32 CFU/mL for C. albicans . This sensor distinguishes between C. albicans and those microbes devoid of cell‐surface mannan such as the gram‐negative bacterium E. coli . This sensor provides a proof‐of‐concept for utilizing recognition between lectins and microbial cell surface carbohydrates to detect microorganisms in aqueous environments.