Surface worker

A team at Imperial College, London is looking for a new method of detecting proteins in diagnostic tests such as those used to measure abnormal protein levels in the body. The researchers hope to find a way of using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy to give a test that is both more sensitive and more reproducible.

The project is a collaboration between biological chemist Robin Leatherbarrow in the chemistry department, Lesley Cohen in physics, who specialises in Raman spectroscopy, and electrical engineer Mino Green, whose expertise lies in surface fabrication. All three are involved in the EPSRC-funded Chemical Biology Centre at Imperial, which was set up to encourage the application of the physical sciences to biological problems.

'The problem with Raman spectroscopy is that while it's an information-rich technique, it's relatively insensitive,' Leatherbarrow explained. 'The Raman effect is enhanced close to a rough silver or gold surface resulting in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), which is far more sensitive. Without SERS the bound proteins would need to be tagged with a Raman active label, which is an expensive extra step.'