Journal of Membrane Science 279 (2006) 354363

Electrospun polylactic acid nanofiber membranes as

substrates for biosensor assemblies
Dapeng Li a , Margaret W. Frey a, , Antje J. Baeumner b
a

Department of Textiles and Apparel, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, United States
Department of Biological and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850, United States
Received 23 August 2005; received in revised form 12 December 2005; accepted 13 December 2005
Available online 15 February 2006

Abstract
Biotin has been successfully incorporated into polylactic acid (PLA) nanofibers through electrospinning to prepare membrane substrates for
biosensors based on biotinstreptavidin specific binding. Biotin incorporated PLA nanofiber membranes were characterized with scanning electron
microscopy (SEM), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), and confocal microscopy. Under optimized conditions, small fiber size and uniform
morphology were achieved for PLA nanofibers with and without biotin incorporation. Sulfur mapping indicated a non-uniform distribution of
biotin on the membranes, presumably due to aggregation of biotin during the electrospinning process. Pre-blocking the membranes effectively
eliminated non-specific binding between streptavidin and PLA. Preliminary biosensor assays confirmed that streptavidin immobilized on the
membrane surface could capture a biotinylated DNA probe.
2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Electrospinning; Nanofiber; Biotin; Streptavidin; Polylactic acid; Biosensor

1. Introduction
A wide array of biosensors have been developed utilizing the
rapid, specific, and strong binding between biotin and streptavidin [1]. In most cases, streptavidin is applied to a substrate
material surface and subsequently coated with a biotinylated
biorecognition agent used to capture specific target analytes.
The number of sites available for detection of the target analytes
is directly related to the surface area of the sensor substrate. A
variety of materials including gold surfaces of surface plasmon
resonance (SPR) sensors [24], plastic films [5], and microfluidic devices [6] have been used as substrates for sensors based
on biotinstreptavidin immobilization.
Researchers have recognized the advantage of increasing the
surface area of the detector substrate to increase the number of
sensing sites available without increasing the amount of overall
sample required [7,8]. Polymeric membranes with high surface
area can be prepared by electrospinning. Electrospinning is a
fiber formation process which relies on electrical rather than

Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 607 255 1937/3151; fax: +1 607 255 1093.
E-mail address: mfw24@cornell.edu (M.W. Frey).

0376-7388/$ see front matter 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.memsci.2005.12.036

mechanical forces to form fibers with sub micron diameters.

These fibers (nanofibers) have exceptional properties due to their
minute diameter and large surface to mass ratio [9]. Non-woven
mats, collected via electrospinning have small pore size, high
porosity, and large surface area. As a result, a small volume
electrospun mat can provide a very large surface for sensing and
easy access for contaminants to the sensing sites. Although the
potential application of combining electrospun nanofiber membranes and biosensing has been recognized, limited studies have
been done in this area [10,11].
Polylactic acid (PLA) has been successfully electrospun
from a variety of solvents [12,13]. Additionally, a wide variety of materials have been incorporated in electrospun PLA
fibers to tailor the fibers for particular end uses. Nanoscale
clay particles have been incorporated in electrospun PLA
fibers to control modulus and biodegradation rate for potential
biodegradable packaging applications [14]. Carbon nanotubes
have been incorporated in electrospun PLA fibers for potential use as bone graft materials [9]. Pharmaceutical chemicals
have been included in electrospun mats for controlled release
delivery. Kenawy et al. [15] incorporated tetracycline hydrochloride in electrospun non-woven fabrics of poly(ethylene-covinylacetate) and PLA. Tetracycline hydrochloride incorporated

D. Li et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 279 (2006) 354363

in the fibers was able to diffuse to the fiber surface over

time.
This paper details our efforts to incorporate biotin into
electrospun PLA membranes by dispersing biotin in a
PLA/chloroform/acetone solution prior to electrospinning. Electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) confirms the presence of
biotin in the electrospun fibers and that the final biotin levels
are proportional to the amount in the initial dispersions. Further
experimentation confirms that the biotin is fixed on the PLA
fibers and cannot be washed off. Preliminary biosensor assays
following the method described by Baeumner et al. [16] are used
to confirm that the nanofiber membrane can successfully immobilize streptavidin which in turn is used for the immobilization of
biotinylated nucleic acid probes for the detection of a synthetic
E. coli DNA.

355

a Branson 2510 ultrasonic cleaner (Branson Ultrasonics Corp.,

CT) prior to adding PLA. Samples containing biotin were sonicated for another 60 min immediately before electrospinning to
insure good dispersion of biotin. Detailed information on the
solutions and dispersions that were used in this study is shown
in Table 1.
2.3. Electrospinning
The electrospinning apparatus consisted of a programmable
syringe pump (Harvard Apparatus, MA) and a high-voltage supply (Gamma High Voltage Research Inc., FL). Variations of the
electrospinning conditions are also summarized in Table 1. Aluminum foil was used as the collector in all cases except for the
electrospinning of the membranes for biosensor assay.

2. Experimental
2.4. Instrumental analyses
2.1. Materials
Polylactic acid (Mw = 186,000, Mw /Mn = 1.76) was supplied by Cargill Dow LLC (Minnetonka, MN). Chloroform
and acetone were purchased from VWR Scientific (West
Chester, PA). Both biotin and Streptavidin-Alexa 488 conjugate (495 nm:519 nm excitation:emission) were purchased from
Pierce Biotechnology Inc. (Rockford, IL). Phosphate buffered
saline (PBS) and Tween 20 were purchased from Aldrich Chemical Co. (Milwaukee, WI).
All general chemicals and buffer reagents (reagent grade
or above) for biosensor assay were purchased from Sigma
Company (St. Louis, MO). Organic solvents were purchased
from Aldrich Chemical Co. (Milwaukee, WI). Predator membranes were obtained from Pall/Gelman Company (Port Washington, NY). Lipids were purchased from Avanti Polar Lipids
(Alabaster, AL). Sulforhodamine B (SRB) and streptavidin
were acquired from Molecular Probes Company (Eugene, OR).
Nucleic acid probes and synthetic targets, with their respective
modifications, were purchased from Qiagen (Valencia, CA).
2.2. Preparation of electrospinning solutions/dispersions
PLA and in chloroform/acetone solvent (3:1 volume ratio)
were mixed over night on an InnovaTM 2300 platform shaker
(New Brunswick Scientific Co., NJ). For samples containing
biotin, biotin was dispersed in chloroform/acetone solvent using

Morphology and fiber size of electrospun PLA nanofibers

were examined with a Leica 440 scanning electron microscope
(SEM) after being coated with AuPd or with a LEO 1550 field
emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM).
Biotin distribution on nanofiber membranes was characterized with a JEOL 8900 electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA).
Both energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS) were used to collect characteristic K X-ray emission of sulfur atoms in the
biotin molecules. As a semi-quantitative means, Ratemeter Xray counting was used to correlate the amount of biotin in the
initial dispersion with the amount that has been incorporated
into the membranes.
A Leica TCS SP2 laser confocal scanning microscope was
used to track the biotinstreptavidin specific binding by imaging the fluorescence of streptavidin-Alexa 488 conjugate treated
nanofiber membranes. Scanning was performed starting from
the top layer of each membrane towards the deeper layers and
stopped when no fluorescence could be detected. To prepare
the samples for confocal analysis, 50 L of diluted streptavidinAlexa 488 conjugate solution was applied to a 4 mm 4 mm
nanofiber membrane that was pre-wet out with PBS/Tween 20
buffer. Treated membranes were subjected to repeated wash with
PBS/Tween 20 buffer to remove any extra streptavidin-Alexa
488 conjugate before being placed onto a glass slide with a cover
glass for confocal analysis.

Table 1
Composition of electrospinning solutions/dispersions and electrospinning conditions
Run

PLA (wt%)

Biotin (wt%, relative to PLA)

Voltage (kV)

Feed rate (L/min)

Needle size (mm)

Ground distance (cm)

6-0-1
6-0-2
6-0-3
8-0-1
8-0-2
8-1
8-2
8-3

6
6
6
8
8
8
8
8

0
0
0
0
0
1
2
3

15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15

10
5
10
10
5
10
10
10

0.26
0.26
0.41
0.41
0.41
0.41
0.41
0.41

10
10
10
12
12
12
12
12

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D. Li et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 279 (2006) 354363

An Imass CAA2 Contact Angle Analyzer (Accord, MA) was

used to measure the contact angle between deionized H2 O and
both electrospun PLA and PLA-biotin membranes.
SEM image analysis was conducted using Scion Image Beta
4.02 (Scion Corporation, Frederick, MD, www.scioncorp.com)
to obtain the size range of nanofibers for each membrane.
2.5. Biosensor assay
For biosensor assay, PLA membranes were electrospun onto a
copper-backed laminate from a solution of 8 wt% PLA in the solvent chloroform/acetone (3:1 volume ratio) and an applied voltage of 15 kV. The PLA membranes were cut into 3 cm 0.4 cm
strips and pre-wet with PBS/Tween 20 buffer. Twenty picomoles
streptavidin dissolved in Na2 CO3 /NaHCO3 buffer, pH 9.0, containing 5% methanol (20 pmol/L) was deposited on PLA strips
to form a capture zone. The membranes were put into the vacuum oven at 103.421355 103 Pa (15 psi) and 50 C for 1 h.
The entire membrane was then blocked with a blocking reagent
(0.02% polyvinylpyrollidone, 0.5% gelatin, and 0.005% casein
in Tris Buffered Saline) to prevent any possible non-specific
binding between other proteins and the membrane and dried in
a vacuum oven at 36 C and 103.421355 103 Pa (15 psi) for
2.5 h. Such membrane strips were then assembled with laminate
according to the design shown in Scheme 1. The capture zone
was 2 cm away from the free end. For comparison, polyethersulfone (PES) membranes were also used in the biosensor assay. In
this case, the entire strip is a 7 cm long PES strip and 20 pmol
streptavidin was deposited 2 cm away from one end using the
same procedure as for the PLA membranes.
The biosensor assay was conducted according to the protocol
developed by Baeumner et al. [16]. In brief, biotinylated capture
probes (5 -CCg TTg gCA CAg CAA ATA-3 ), universal reporter
probes (5 -gTC Tgg TgA ATT ggT TCC ggg ggg Tgg ggg Tgg
ggg Tgg-3 ) and SRB-entrapping liposomes bearing a universal
probe (5 -CCA CCC CCA CCC CCA CCC CC-3 ) at their outer
membrane were mixed in a hybridization buffer. A synthetic
target DNA (5 -ggC AAC CgT gTC gTT TAT CAg ACC ACT
TAA CCA Agg C-3 ) derived from the E. coli clpB mRNA was
added to the mixture (H2 O in the case of negative controls)
and incubated at 41 C for 20 min. The exact composition of
the mixture was: 2 L liposomes, 1 L reporter probe (2 pmol),
1 L target sequence (500 fmol), 1 L capture probe (1 pmol),
and 5 L hybridization buffer (20% formamide, 4 SSC, 0.4%
Ficoll type 400, 0.4 M sucrose). One end of a membrane strip

was inserted into a test tube containing 10 L of either positive

or negative sample. After the sample was allowed to wick up the
membrane strip, 35 L of washing buffer (40% formamide, 8
SSC, 0.2% Ficoll, 0.2 M sucrose) were added to the test tubes
to provide enough liquid to wet out the entire length of the strip.
The color of the strip was measured with a BR-10 reflectometer
(ESECO Company, Cushing, OK) to detect the presence of SRB
in the capture and background zones.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Electrospun PLA nanobers
SEM images of PLA nanofibers electrospun under different
conditions are shown in Fig. 1. Sample 6-0-1 (Fig. 1a) shows a
typical beaded-fiber morphology, which is mostly attributed to
the relatively low concentration of PLA in the electrospinning
solution. The beaded-fiber morphology is not affected by feed
rate even when the feed rate is decreased by a factor of two,
as seen from the image of sample 6-0-2 (Fig. 1b). The fiber
uniformity improves slightly when the nozzle size is increased
with other conditions held the same. Nanofibers electrospun with
a needle of 0.41 mm in diameter are shown in Fig. 1c. Under
these conditions, the bead-fiber morphology has been replaced
by spindle-fiber morphology.
A noticeable change in uniformity occurs when the concentration of PLA is increased from 6% to 8% and the ground
distance is increased by 2 cm, as seen in Fig. 1d, without significantly increasing fiber size. Fiber diameters range from 200 nm
to 5 m. The fiber size can be made slightly smaller when the
feed rate is decreased from 10 to 5 L/min at 8% concentration
(compare Fig. 1d with Fig. 1e), but decreasing feed rate doubles
the time for electrospinning the same amount of nanofibers. The
change in fiber size as a function of PLA concentration agrees
with previous studies [17]. Fibers reported here were spun from
the same solvent system with the same polymer concentration
but using a larger molecular weight PLA (Mw = 186,000 versus Mv = 48,000). Increased molecular weight is associated with
increased viscosity of the spinning solution, which in turn is
associated with increased electrospun fiber diameter [18].
Fig. 2 shows the SEM images of PLA nanofibers spun from
solutions with different amounts of biotin dispersed in the spinning solution. Fiber diameters ranged from 150 nm to 5 m as
measured by image analysis and were independent of biotin
concentration. The addition of biotin in the amount of up to
3% relative to PLA weight in the electrospinning dope does not
make a significant difference in fiber size and uniformity.
3.2. EPMA analysis

Scheme 1. Design of the strip for biosensor assay.

EDS spectra of PLA nanofiber membranes with and without biotin are shown in Fig. 3 before and after being subjected
to PBS buffer wash. Enrichment of sulfur is observed in PLAbiotin nanofibers. Because sulfur atoms are solely attributed to
biotin molecules in this system (see Scheme 2 for the structure of
biotin molecules), the presence of the sulfur peak in EDS spectra indicates the successful incorporation of biotin molecules in

D. Li et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 279 (2006) 354363

357

Fig. 1. SEM images of electrospun PLA nanofibers. (a) 6-0-1, (b) 6-0-2, (c) 6-0-3, (d) 8-0-1, and (e) 8-0-2.

nanofibers through electrospinning. Secondly, the sulfur peak

shown in Fig. 3d indicates that biotin is not removed when the
membrane is subjected to PBS buffer wash. Also seen from Fig. 3
is that buffer wash causes two major changes in the spectra: the
increased background and the appearance of some new peaks
such as Na, Cl, K, and P. These peaks are introduced by PBS

buffer wash and do not overlap with the sulfur peak located at
2.3 keV.
Further characterization using X-ray counting of PLA
nanofiber membranes with and without biotin is shown in Fig. 4.
The X-ray counts of the sample without biotin are the background signal level [19]. Subtracting the background, the X-ray

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D. Li et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 279 (2006) 354363

Fig. 2. SEM images of biotin incorporated electrospun PLA. (a) 8-1, (b) 8-2, and (c) 8-3 (refer to Table 1 for sample information).

counts of the biotin incorporated PLA samples are proportional

to the amount of biotin dispersed in the electrospinning dopes,
which provides us a semi-quantitative estimate of the level of
biotin incorporated into the membranes. Comparing the X-ray
count of the membrane before PBS buffer wash and that after, we
can see a much higher background generated in the membrane
after PBS wash (260 versus 667). Subtracting the background
from the control that is subjected to PBS wash, the PLA mem-

brane electrospun from the dispersion with 3% biotin shows that

about 2/3 of the amount of biotin initially dispersed in the spinning dope remains on the membrane. The reason for examining
the biotin retention on the membrane after PBS wash is to confirm that biotin will not be removed by PBS buffer wash during
biosensor assays.
To examine the distribution of biotin on nanofiber membranes, sulfur mapping was performed using EPMA. In Fig. 5,

Fig. 3. EDS spectra of electrospun PLA nanofiber membranes (a) 8-0-1 and (b) 8-3 are before PBS buffer wash, while (c) 8-0-1 and (d) 8-3 are after PBS buffer
wash (see Ref. [16]). Spectrum (b) was obtained by peeling the membrane off the aluminum foil collector while the rest spectra were obtained with the aluminum
foil on the back of the membranes.

D. Li et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 279 (2006) 354363

359

Fig. 3. (Continued ).

the increased number of blue spots in the PLA-biotin nanofiber

membrane over the PLA only membrane confirms dispersion of
biotin throughout the PLA-biotin nanofiber membrane. On the
other hand, several large bright spots on the EPMA map of the
PLA-biotin nanofiber membrane indicate that biotin is heterogeneously distributed on the mapping area. EMPA mapping of

sulfur content in one of the bright spots is shown in Fig. 6 at a

higher magnification. Under this magnification it is evident that
the distribution of sulfur signals matches the fibers alignment.
This pattern match further confirms the incorporation of biotin
into PLA nanofibers.
3.3. Confocal microscopy analysis
To confirm that biotin incorporated in PLA nanofiber membranes is available to bind with streptavidin, specific binding

Fig. 4. Sulfur X-ray counts as a function of biotin concentration in electrospinning dopes. At least eight areas (each area about 500 m 700 m) are
randomly selected for sulfur K X-ray counting for each nanofiber membrane
sample. Sixty seconds is applied as counting time under a current of 56 nA.

Scheme 2. Structure of biotin.

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D. Li et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 279 (2006) 354363

Fig. 5. Comparison of the sulfur map of PLA nanofiber membranes with (top, 8-3) and without (bottom, 8-0-1) biotin. Refer to Table 1 for sample information.

between the incorporated biotin and a fluorescent dye-Alexa

488-labeled streptavidin conjugate was studied via confocal
microscopy. Fig. 7 shows the top view of the overlapped fluorescence images of both a PLA nanofiber membrane and the
PLA-biotin nanofiber membrane. Also shown in Fig. 7 is the
first frame of the optical images of both membranes. The color
bar beside each image indicates the location of fluorescence
signals on the scanned layers. The purple and blue nanofibers
are located on the layers closest to the surface of the membrane, while the red and pink nanofibers are located on the
layers farthest away from the surface. The PLA-biotin membrane exhibits greater fluorescence at all depths than the PLA
only membrane. More importantly, however, fluorescence on the
PLA-biotin membranes follows the pattern of the electrospun
fibers. Biotin incorporated in the fibers appears to be successfully bound to fluorescence labeled streptavidin along the length
of the fibers.
The difference between PLA membrane and PLA-biotin
membrane is also seen in the profile images shown in Fig. 8b
and c. The travel distance of fluorescence is about twice as long
in the biotin incorporated PLA membrane than in the pure PLA
membrane. On the other hand, the control membrane treated
only with PBS buffer (Fig. 8a) shows no fluorescence at all.

Such difference is certainly due to the incorporation of biotin.

First of all, the florescence resulted from the pure PLA membrane is simply caused by the non-specific binding between
streptavidin and the substrate, or the physical absorption of the
protein onto the membrane (Fig. 8b). The incorporation of biotin
into PLA membrane on the one hand introduces the active sites
for specific binding with streptavidin while on the other hand
decreases the hydrophobicity of the PLA membrane (see the
contact angle measurements in Fig. 9). Both the introduction
of active binding sites and the increased hydrophilicity of the
membrane contribute to the increase in streptavidin penetration.
Also shown in Fig. 8 is the difference in fluorescence between
blocked and non-blocked PLA membranes. Comparison of
Fig. 8b and d confirms that pre-blocking have effectively suppressed the non-specific binding of streptavidin-Alexa 488 conjugate. As seen from Fig. 8d, blocked PLA membrane has little
or no fluorescence, the same appearance as the control (Fig. 8a)
sample. Blocked PLA-biotin membrane (Fig. 8e), on the other
hand, has fluorescence, indicating that biotin is accessible to bind
with streptavidin after the membrane is blocked. Blocked PLAbiotin membrane shows approximately the same penetration
depth along the profile as does the sample without pre-blocking

D. Li et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 279 (2006) 354363

361

Fig. 6. High magnification sulfur mapping of biotin incorporated PLA nanofiber membrane.

(Fig. 8c). Fig. 8d and e clearly shows the difference between

PLA and PLA-biotin membranes when non-specific binding is
effectively suppressed by pre-blocking.
The confocal results indicate two important properties of
the PLA-biotin nanofiber membranes. First, fluorescence signal appears along the length of individual fibers, indicating
that biotin incorporated into individual fibers is accessible for
streptavidin binding. The heterogeneous distribution of biotin
evident from EPMA mapping (Fig. 5) does limit the availability of sites for biotinstreptavidin binding. Second, although
the biotin incorporated into PLA membrane is accessible to
streptavidin to bind with, only the biotin located approximately
10 m depth of the entire thickness of the membrane has
specifically bound with streptavidin in confocal experiments.
The hydrophobicity of PLA nanofibers may limit the wicking of streptavidin through the membrane under aqueous buffer
environment.
3.4. Biosensor assay
To demonstrate that the analyte solution can travel through
nanofiber membranes and that the target E. coli DNA can be

captured by streptavidin on the nanofiber surface a biosensor

assay was performed. An electrospun PLA nanofiber membrane was used as the substrate as shown in Scheme 1. Filter paper is attached to one end of the strip to collect excess
liposomes that are not specifically bound with the deposited
streptavidin during the wicking process. For comparison, a
parallel biosensor assay using regular PES membrane as the
substrate was also performed. Shown in Fig. 10 are the photographs of typical biosensor assay results from both membrane
substrates. The test solution wicked successfully through the
PLA nanofiber membrane, capture probes were successfully
trapped where streptavidin had been deposited and excess solution wicked past the capture zone to the filter paper. Specific
signals for the clpB synthetic target sequence in the capture
zones were 57 for the PES sensor and 69 for the PLA sensor. Signals of the corresponding background zones were 26
and 59. This indicates that streptavidin was successfully immobilized on the PLA membrane through deposition and that
it was capable of capturing biotinylated DNA capture probes
hybridized to the target sequence-liposome complex, thus proving the validity of our concept in nanofiber membrane-based
biosensors.

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D. Li et al. / Journal of Membrane Science 279 (2006) 354363

Fig. 7. Pattern match between the distribution of fluorescence and that of PLA nanofiber membranes with (bottom, 8-3) and without (top, 8-0-1) biotin. Refer to
Table 1 for sample information.

Fig. 8. Fluorescence image profiling of streptavidin-Alexa 488 conjugate treated PLA and PLA-biotin nanofiber membranes. (a) Non-blocked PLA membrane applied
only with PBS buffer (control). (b) Non-blocked PLA membrane treated with streptavidin-Alexa 488 conjugate. (c) Non-blocked PLA-biotin (83%) membrane
treated with streptavidin-Alexa 488 conjugate. (d) Blocked PLA membrane treated with streptavidin-Alexa 488 conjugate. (e) Blocked PLA-biotin (83%) membranes
treated with streptavidin-Alexa 488 conjugate.

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363

Acknowledgements
The project was supported by the National Research Initiative
of the USDA Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (grant number 2005-35603-15298). The authors
acknowledge the contribution made by Ms. Barbara Leonard
and Ms. Jamie Mullally.
References

Fig. 9. Contact angle differences of the electrospun PLA membranes with and
without biotin.

Fig. 10. Capture of E. coli synthetic target sequence on the PES membrane (top)
and electrospun PLA nanofiber membrane (bottom). Circled area is the capture
zone where streptavidin is deposited. Squared area is where the background
measurement is taken that serves as an internal control of the performance of
each membrane, i.e. presenting possible non-specific binding of liposomes on
the membrane.

4. Conclusions
Biotin has been successfully incorporated into PLA
nanofibers through electrospinning without significantly changing the morphology and size of the resulting nanofibers.
Nanofiber membranes were characterized with EPMA to confirm biotin incorporation in the fibers. Although biotin is dispersed throughout the nanofiber membranes the distribution is
heterogeneous and regions of locally high biotin concentration
are evident. Confocal microscopy analysis indicates that both
specific and non-specific binding occur between streptavidin
and the biotin incorporated PLA nanofiber membranes. With
blocking reagent, non-specific binding can be suppressed effectively. Fluorescence labeled streptavidin binds along the surface
of PLA-biotin fibers providing evidence that biotin incorporated
via electrospinning is available at the fiber surface. Biosensor assay experiments confirm that the PLA nanofiber membranes can successfully transport analyte solutions via wicking. A biotinylated DNA probe was successfully captured by
immobilized streptavidin in a preliminary biosensor assay using
an electrospun PLA nanofiber membrane as substrate. Further
efforts are being made in (1) optimizing the nanofiber substrate
by decreasing the fiber diameter and increasing biotin loading
and (2) functionalizing the electrospun nanofibers for specific
capture and detection of environmental pathogens or other contaminates.

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