Lisa Torres
Lisa Torres
E-mail: University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez
Department: Chemistry
Advisor: Juan Lopez-Garriga
Biography
Chemical communications between H2S, electrode surface, gold nanoparticles and Tag (His and Lys) proteins moieties
Hemoglobin I (HbI) from Lucina Pectinata is one of the few known H2S carriers in organism which have very high affinity to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and a great potential for many biomedical applications including biosensors. Nowadays it is clear that H2S is involved in modulating various physiological responses including anti-inflammation, neuromodulation, and vasoregulation however a robust and reliable sensor to measure H2S in biological samples is still needed. There are also many studies regarding the potential of therapeutic approaches employing H2S for various clinical applications.
Previous results in our group demonstrate bioactivity of recombinant His-tag Hemoglobin I (rHbI) immobilized over bulk gold electrode surface. The linear response range of H2S concentration was from 40 nM to 600 nM. The lower limit of detection (LOD) was around 13 nM (R2=0.998, n=16) and with a limit of quantification (LOQ) 43 nM. However the turnover and the linear response range of the previous design can be significantly improved building a nanostructured platform with gold nanoparticles and refining the chemical communication between the surface and the immobilized recombinant protein with His-tag or the newly developed lysine-tag HbI system.