title: Bio-sensing with butterfly wings: naturally occurring nano-structures for SERS-based malaria parasite detection.
abstract: Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful tool with great potential to provide improved bio-sensing capabilities. The current 'gold-standard' method for diagnosis of malaria involves visual inspection of blood smears using light microscopy, which is time consuming and can prevent early diagnosis of the disease. We present a novel surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy substrate based on gold-coated butterfly wings, which enabled detection of malarial hemozoin pigment within lysed blood samples containing 0.005% and 0.0005% infected red blood cells.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Biospectroscopy, School of Chemistry, Monash University, 3800, Victoria, Australia. Bayden.wood@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Natalie L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Garrett
authors.forename: Ryo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sekine
authors.forename: Matthew W A
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Dixon
authors.forename: Leann
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tilley
authors.forename: Keith R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Bambery
authors.forename: Bayden R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Wood
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002080:Butterflies / Q000502:physiology; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000469:parasitology; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D006420:Hemeproteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D008288:Malaria / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000469:parasitology; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010961:Plasmodium / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman; D014921:Wings, Animal / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D006420:Hemeproteins; C020753:hemozoin; D006046:Gold