Detection of drugs and related substances by microfluidic based surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy

Speaker

Rustin Mirsafavi
PhD Candidate
Biomolecular Science and Engineering Center for BioEngineering
University of California, Santa Barbara

Abstract

Drug abuse in the United States results in tens of thousands of deaths and extracts hundreds of billions of dollars in health and economic costs annually. Detection of drugs and their related substances in a rapid, unambiguous and reliable way is needed to decrease the negative impacts associated with drug abuse. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a subset of Raman spectroscopy that retains the fingerprinting ability of Raman spectroscopy while vastly increasing the signal intensity. SERS has been reported to be sensitive enough to detect at the single molecule level, making SERS the most sensitive non-destructive analysis technique known. However, challenges in using SERS in regards to prima facie evidence, quantitation of analytes, and classification of substances have persisted. These challenges are paramount in reducing the losses attributed to drug abuse and are addressed by combining SERS with microfluidics and implementing analytical approaches using chemometrics.