Through substituting antibodies with molecularly imprinted materials or aptamers, and combining with high-sensitivity detection methods such as fluorescence, Raman or chemiluminescence, we can develop novel antibody-free and enzyme-free immunoassay techniques for disease diagnosis analysis (Figure 1). In particular, the combination of plasmonic materials and molecular recognition technology can significantly improve the detection sensitivity and can be used for the detection of extremely trace target molecules in actual physiological samples.

Figure 1. Schematic of the combination of boronate affinity molecularly imprinted array and surface enhanced Raman scattering for the detection of glycoprotein markers.