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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jan 20.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Mater. 2007 Oct 28;7(1):52–56. doi: 10.1038/nmat2042

Figure 1. Conceptual depiction of detection using polymerization-based signal amplification.

Figure 1

A surface that may contain biotin-labelled biomolecules of interest is placed in contact with a dual-functional macrophotoinitiator, a water-soluble macromolecule that contains one or two pendant Neutravidins (red shapes) and ~100 pendant photoinitiator moieties. The Neutravidin-functionalized macroinitiator binds only to the spots that contain biotin (illustrated with a ‘+’ in the first column) and does not bind elsewhere (negative spots illustrated schematically in the second column). The entire surface is then contacted with a monomer solution and irradiated to initiate polymerization. Recognition of biotin by avidin is demonstrated by the formation of a solid polymer only on areas of the surface where molecular recognition and subsequent polymerization occurred. Numerous other biological molecules can be detected with a similar approach by incorporating appropriately designed macroinitiators.