Nanogram sensitivity via quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation factor for quick real-Time kinetic monitoring of bio-macromolecular and-cellular interactions

Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation factor (QCM-D) is a simple, cost effective, high-resolution mass sensing technique designed to sense different materials that can be mechanically excited providing information about the energy dissipating properties of the bound surface mass. The versatility of this technique allows for the performance of a wide set of analysis ranging from the study of biomimetic systems to the construction of biosensors via biochemical components or whole cell immobilization onto bare or modified resonator surfaces. The major advantage of biosensing is high efficiency and nanogram sensitivity through specific molecular interactions. QCM sensors can give information about weak interactions between adsorbed and free elements to be studied, in which changes in contact mechanics, interfacial dynamics, surface roughness, viscoelasticity, density and mass can be monitored in real time. This is a higher level of information content than that produced by other techniques that use optical label free. Recently, there has been a great deal of growth in the literature utilizing QCM-D as a characterization method on application areas of relevance to biological and biochemical research. This article reviews the application and use of QCM-D in the real-Time kinetic monitoring of bio-macromolecular and cellular interactions onto various substrates.