Ultrabright plasmon-enhanced fluorescence for single-molecule biosensing

I will describe the use of plasmon-enhanced fluorescence to boost single-molecule fluorescence signals by more than two orders of magnitude. I will discuss two applications of this approach that directly exploit these ultrabright signals. Firstly, they enable highly sensitive single-molecule DNA diagnostics directly in serum on an affordable and miniaturized microscopy platform. By using a reversible sandwich assay I will describe a continuous monitoring biosensor that is suitable for point-of-care diagnostics. Secondly, the ultrabright signals pave the way to real-time probing of single-molecule dynamics on so-far inaccessible microsecond timescales. I will show recent results where we study the dynamics of monovalent and multivalent DNA constructs in real time with microsecond integration times.