Professor Ki-Hun Jeong of KAIST’s Department of Bio and Brain Engineering and his research team have developed a revolutionary high-sensitivity nano optics measurement technology for the detection of small molecules.

These small molecules refer to molecules with low molecular weight values that are located within organisms that can pass through the cell membrane and play an important role in intercellular signaling. They are defined as organic molecules with molecular weights usually below 800 Daltons. In recent times, the pharmaceutical industry has paid close attention to the pharmaceutics research and development based on the small molecules.

The majority of these small molecules, though, have a shortcoming in its adversion to inducing antigen-antibody bond reactions, leading to difficulties when analyzing using common fluorescence or electrochemical techniques.

Using the nanofluid flow characteristic that is over 700,000 times smaller than the cross-section of a human hair, Professor Jeong’s team managed to locally increase the trace amounts of small molecules at nanomolar (nM) concentrations. Afterwards, it is combined with nanoplasmonic optical technology to improve the measuring light’s intensity by over ten thousand times.

The results of this technology are regarded as an improvement on previous global detection limitations by several hundreds of times. There are high expectations for this new technology, including possible contributions to the early diagnosis of regressive neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and to brain function analysis technology.

Meanwhile this research, which has been carried out under the Korean Research Foundation, supported by the Ministry of Education, and Open Renovation Business, supported by Korean Bioengineering Research Center, was headed by doctorate student Young-Jae Oh. Professor Jeong’s research has also been featured on the cover of the January 17 issue of the German scientific journal Small.