Unravelling carbohydrate interactions with biosensors using Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) detection

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is an optical phenomenon occurring at a metal coated interface between two media of different refractive index, e.g., water and glass. Exploitation of this phenomenon for investigating biomolecular interactions has occurred since biomolecules can be attached to a chemically modified gold surface and that an interaction between the surface and other biomolecules in solution will affect the SPR of the system. A great deal of the literature on this subject has involved an investigation of protein-ligand interactions, but this chapter will review the use of this technique for investigating carbohydrate-ligand interactions.