Molecular fingerprinting of biological nanoparticles with a label-free optofluidic platform

• Published in: ArXiv 2023-08
• Main Authors: Stollmann, Alexia, Garcia-Guirado, Jose, Hong, Jae-Sang, Im, Hyungsoon, Lee, Hakho, Arroyo, Jaime Ortega, Quidant, Romain
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2331-8422

Label-free detecting multiple analytes in a high-throughput fashion has been one of the long-sought goals in biosensing applications. Yet, for all-optical approaches, interfacing state-of-the-art label-free techniques with microfluidics tools that can process small volumes of sample with high throughput, and with surface chemistry that grants analyte specificity, poses a critical challenge to date. Here, we introduce an optofluidic platform that brings together state-of-the-art digital holography with PDMS microfluidics by using supported lipid bilayers as a surface chemistry building block to integrate both technologies. Specifically, this platform fingerprints heterogeneous biological nanoparticle populations via a multiplexed label-free immunoaffinity assay with single particle sensitivity. Herein, we first thoroughly characterise the robustness and performance of the platform, and then apply it to profile four distinct ovarian cell-derived extracellular vesicle populations over a panel of surface protein biomarkers, thus developing a unique biomarker fingerprint for each cell line. We foresee that our approach will find many applications where routine and multiplexed characterisation of biological nanoparticles is required.