3D-printed biosensors in biomedical applications exploiting plasmonic phenomena and antibody self-assembled monolayers.

In this work, a 3D-printed plasmonic chip based on a silver-gold bilayer was developed in order to enhance the optical response of the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) probe. More specifically, numerical and experimental results were obtained on the 3D-printed SPR platform based on a silver-gold bilayer. Then, the optimized probe's gold plasmonic interface was functionalized with a specific antibody directed against the p27Kip1 protein (p27), an important cell cycle regulator. The 3D-printed plasmonic biosensor was tested for p27 detection with good selectivity and a detection limit of 55 pM. The biosensor system demonstrated performance similar to commercially available ELISA (enzyme-linked immunoassay) kits, with several advantages, such as a wide detection range and a modular and simple-based architecture. The proposed biosensing technology offers flexible deployment options that are useful in disposable, low-cost, small-size, and simple-to-use biochips, envisaging future applications in experimental and biomedical research.