报告题目：利用光镊-拉曼光谱联用技术对生物分子进行从单分子到单细胞水平的表征

报 告 人：黄晋卿（香港科技大学副教授）

报告时间：2025年12月1日（星期一）上午9:00

报告地点：大学城校区B8号楼445会议室

邀请人：刘锦斌教授

主办单位：化学与化工学院

报告人简介：

Jinqing Huang is an Associate Professor at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. She obtained her B.S.degree in Chemistry from Sun Yat-sen University in 2010, followed by a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from The University of Hong Kong in 2014. From 2015 to 2017,she pursued postdoctoral research in Biophysical Chemistry as a Postdoctoral Associate at Yale University. Her research findings have been published in prestigious high-impact journals such as Nature Communications and Science Advances.

报告摘要：

It is challenging to characterize single or a few biomolecules in physiological milieus without excluding the influences of surrounding environment. Here, we developed a new method, opticaltweezers-coupled Raman spectroscopy, enabling active characterizations of biomolecules from a single-molecule to a single-cell level. Specifically,single-molecule surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) directly probes the vibrational characteristics of individual molecules to uncover unique molecular information inaccessible from ensemble measurements. As a surface-sensitive technique, the amplification of SERS signal occurs upon the excitation of localized surface plasmon resonance in metallic nanostructures, overcoming the optical diffraction limit for nanoscale spatial detection. Complementary to this, optical tweezers introduce active control through manipulating target objectis in three dimensions with high precision, which provide sub-millisecond temporal feedback with sub-piconewton force resolution and sub-nanometerdistance sensitivity.

  We utilized this new platform to controltwo Ag nanoparticle-coated silica beads to detect target proteins in solutions,generating adjustable and reproducible SERS enhancements with single-moleculelevel sensitivity. Our results resolve the structural variations ofalpha-synuclein arisen from its rare transient species at physiologicalconcentration, which are buried under the averaging signals in conventionalbulk measurements but crucial for the initiation of its amyloid aggregationassociated with Parkinson’s disease [1]. Furthermore,by utilizing optical plasmonic trapping upon on/off laser excitation to controlthe formation of dynamic nanocavity, we unveil the rare pH-dependent amylin(hIAPP) species with high sensitivity and efficiency [2]. Additionally, ourintegrated platform offers extra control to manipulate and characterize proteinproperties during liquid-liquid phase separation and cell proliferation, whichholds promise for regulating and resolving the structural details of individualbiomolecules in complex systems. [3]

Reference:

[1] Dai X., Fu W., Chi H., Mesias V., ZhuH., Leung CW., Liu W.*, Huang J.*, Optical Tweezers-Controlled Hotspot forSensitive and Reproducible Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Characterizationof Native Protein Structures. Nat. Commun. (2021); 12, 1292.

[2] Fu W., Dai X., Chiu K., Mesias V., ZhuH., Liu W.*, Huang J.*, Efficient Optical Plasmonic Tweezer-ControlledSingle-Molecule SERS Characterization of PH-Dependent Amylin Species in AqueousMilieus. Nat. Commun. (2023); 14, 6996.

[3] Yi Q., Dai X., Park B. M., Gu J., LuoJ., Wang R., Yu C., Kou S., Huang J.*, Lakerveld R.*, Sun F.*, Sci Adv. (2022);8, eade0073.