Plasmonic-based sensors for chemical and biochemical sensing applications

the present PhD project rises with the objective of providing new fast and reliable SERS-based optical sensors properly functionalized for the molecular screening of biological fluids (saliva, blood, cerebrospinal fluid), by performing Raman-SERS real time measurements for targeting specific biomarkers highly diluted in liquid samples. Thus, the aim of this PhD thesis is twofold: i) to develop new method for the synthesis of plasmonic nanostructure engineered and tailored to interact with biological fluids, preserving their functionalities and preventing aggregation phenomena, as well as to increase the specific capture and detection of biological molecules of interest and ii) to test the feasibility of applying the fabricated SERS- sensors for specific clinical problems.