Nanobowtie Embedded Microfluidic Device for SERS Identification of Extracellular Vesicles from Synthetic Liposomes

Abstract

The need for repeated molecular analyses in facilitating precision oncology, drive the efforts to amend liquid biopsy methods. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) provides a facile platform for liquid biopsy applications. The plasmonic nanomaterials represents a paradigm shift in harnessing the distinguished merits of SERS platforms and therefore of remarkable potential to enhance the sensitivity of the identification. Here, we studied the fabrication, implementation, and application of nanobowtie structures embedded in a microfluidic device for sensitive SERS identification. As a proof of principle, we evaluated the competence of the device in SERS identification of the extracellular vesicles derived from NHA cells for sensitivity. Using the nanobowtie embedded microfluidic device, we were able to distinguish a set of peaks expressed in NHA EVs populations from the artificial homogenous vesicles.