WAVEGUIDE EVANESCENT STREAK EXCITATION OF ADSORBED PROTEIN FLUORESCENCE.
A great deal of scientific effort is currently focused on the thrombogenic response to a material when it comes in contact with blood. Present theory suggests the most important event in blood/materials interactions is the initial deposition of blood plasma proteins. One of the established techniques for characterizing proteins adsorbed at the solid/liquid interface is Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF). In this presentation we will discuss two new techniques similar to TIRF for evanescently exciting the fluorescence of proteins adsorbed to optical waveguide surfaces. Both of these systems utilize an integrated optics modification of the evanescent excitation principle of conventional TIRF. Waveguide Evanescent Streak Excitation also measures the time dependent increase in protein fluorescence as the protein enters the evanescent volume and adsorbs at the solid/liquid interface. Rhodamine and Fluorescein labeled IgG served as the protein model. Experimental design and results will be presented.
