A coumarin-based fluorescent probe for recognition of Cu(2+) and fast detection of histidine in hard-to-transfect cells by a sensing ensemble approach.

A coumarin-based fluorescent chemosensor CAQA has been synthesized. It can selectively and sensitively recognize Cu(2+) in aqueous acetonitrile solutions. Using the Cu-containing complex CAQA-Cu(2+) as a sensing ensemble, the device demonstrates highly selective recognition of His/biothiols and was applied in fluorescence imaging of histidine in hard-to-transfect living cells.

Protein recognition via surface molecularly imprinted polymer nanowires.

In this paper, we present a technique for the preparation of polymer nanowires with the protein molecule imprinted and binding sites at surface. These surface imprinting nanowires exhibit highly selective recognition for a variety of template proteins, including albumin, hemoglobin, and cytochrome c. This recognition may be through a multistep adsorption, with the specificity conferred by hydrogen bonding and shape selectivity. Due to the protein imprinted sites are located at, or close to, the surface; these imprinted nanowires have a good site accessibility toward the target protein molecules. Furthermore, the large surface area of the nanowires results in large protein molecule binding capacity of the imprinted nanowires.