Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering of Microorganisms

摘要

Although the reproducibility issue continues to be the major obstacle for applications of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), its unique properties such as high sensitivity, "finger-printing" and nominal influence from water make the technique apparently advantages over the competing techniques such as IR and fluorescence. The applicability of the technique to biological samples has increased the momentum for its applications for the solution of several problems in biological fields and medicine. The detection and characterization of a number of small and large biological molecules were reported [1,2]. Probing biochemical processes in living cells [3,4], identification of healthy tissues and tumors for cancer diagnosis [5], characterization and detection of microorganisms [6,7] are the recent examples of the effort to utilize the technique in biological fields and medicine.