title: Whole-cell sensing for a harmful bloom-forming microscopic alga by measuring antibody--antigen forces.
abstract: Aureococcus anophagefferens, a harmful bloom-forming alga responsible for brown tides in estuaries of the Middle Atlantic U.S., has been investigated by atomic force microscopy for the first time, using probes functionalized with a monoclonal antibody specific for the alga. The rupture force between a single monoclonal antibody and the surface of A. anophagefferens was experimentally found to be 246 +/- 11 pN at the load rate of 12 nN/s. Force histograms for A. anophagefferens and other similarly-sized algae are presented and analyzed. The results illustrate the effects of load rates, and demonstrate that force-distance measurements can be used to build biosensors with high signal-to-noise ratios for A. anophagefferens. The methods described in this paper can be used, in principle, to construct sensors with single-cell resolution for arbitrary cells for which monoclonal antibodies are available.
authors.affiliation: Mork Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and the Laboratory for Molecular Robotics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0781, USA. alexanderslee@gmail.com
authors.forename: Alexander S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Mrinal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mahapatro
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Caron
authors.forename: Aristides A G
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Requicha
authors.forename: Beth A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Stauffer
authors.forename: Mark E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Chongwu
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000936:Antigen-Antibody Complex / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D001681:Biological Assay / Q000379:methods*; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D005068:Eutrophication; D007118:Immunoassay / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods*; D000459:Phaeophyceae / Q000145:classification / Q000276:immunology / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014159:Transducers
chemical_list: D000936:Antigen-Antibody Complex