ENHANCED PERFORMANCE OF FIBEROPTIC IMMUNOPROBES USING REFUNCTIONALIZED FLUOROPOLYMERS AS THE SUBSTRATUM

Surface refunctionalized fluoropolymers are compared to quartz substrata as a means of stabilizing covalently-immobilized biological recognition elements. Results show that antibodies immobilized on the refunctionalized fluoropolymers have greater stability (by at least a factor of 20). Fluoropolymer-immobilized antibodies retain up to 85% of their initial affinity after one year of refrigerated (4-degrees-C) storage. A new fibre-optic immunoprobe, based on these refunctionalized fluoropolymers, is described. Comparison studies between quartz and the refunctionalized fluoropolymer substrata show that the detection limits and dynamic range are similar and probe stability is improved significantly using the new materials.