- Home
- Research
- Spectroscopy and Imaging
- Work-Groups
- Plasmon-enhanced Bioanalytics
Plasmon-enhanced Bioanalytics
Our research group is dedicated to exploring innovative optical effects to significantly enhance signal intensity in Raman spectroscopy. This is achieved by amplifying the electromagnetic field intensity near plasmonic nanostructures and coupling them with molecular vibrational modes. This effect is known as Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). The goal of our research is to design, characterize, and optimize tailored structures for practical applications, based on a deep understanding of these signal enhancement mechanisms.
Our developments find applications in various fields, including environmental analytics and medicine. In particular, we are working on innovative solutions for monitoring drug concentrations and detecting metabolites and biomarkers in complex human matrices. Additionally, we investigate the detection of environmentally relevant pollutants in water samples as well as the identification of signaling molecules involved in microbial communication.
Application scenarios of SERS in complex biomatrices
Research Topics
The research group focuses on the fabrication and understanding of plasmonic structures, including their functionalization, to enhance vibrational bands in Raman spectra and to make high-performance SERS structures applicable to biophotonics.
- Investigation of plasmonic structures for use as SERS substrates
- Surface functionalization of plasmonic nanostructures
- Application of the SERS method in bio-, environmental-, and medical analytics
- Detection and quantification of drugs and their metabolites in complex bodily fluids such as urine, blood-based matrices, or biological samples
- Analysis of bodily fluids for biomarker detection
- Detection of pollutants in aqueous environmental samples
- Identification of signaling molecules in microbial cultures
Areas of application
- Qualitative and quantitative detection of low-molecular-weight substances (e.g., drugs, metabolites) in body fluids and biological samples using high-performance SERS-active structures
- Identification of biomarkers for therapy-supporting investigations of body fluids
- SERS-based detection methods in clinical environments using resource-efficient SERS structures for applications in low-infrastructure settings
- Semi-quantification of pollutants in environmentally relevant water samples
- Identification of signaling molecules in quorum sensing