Optical fiber nanotips as carriers for molecular beacon-based biosensors

Optical sensors have a large impact in the fields of life science research, drug discovery and medical diagnostics. The recent advances in nanotechnology and photonics have led to a new generation of nanotools, capable of probing even the single cell: it has already been demonstrated that nanobiosensors can detect biochemical targets and proteins inside living single cells [1]. Here we present some preliminary results concerning the use of a fibre optical nanotip with a molecular beacon (MB) immobilized for cancer theranostics. The solid support chosen as substrate for the immobilization of the MB was a tip of an optical fibre tapered at nanoscale size, intended to be used in the future to probe directly inside the cytoplasm of living cells [2]. The nanotip was fabricated by chemical etching, starting from 500 micron - diameter multimode optical fibre down to 100 nm at the tip. Next, the fibre tips were silanized, and MB attached via covalent-binding procedure. © 2013 IEEE.