Microchip for Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Detection of Live Single Cell

In this paper, a homemade multifunctional microchip with nanostructured gold microelectrodes was used for noninvasive and label-free detection of single-cell's Raman spectra. The nanostructured microelectrode acted as a surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrate and its SERS enhancement factor was up to 5 × 10
⁵
. Raman spectra of live single cell MCF-7 positioned onto the microelectrodes were successfully detected by using the microchip. Afterwards, the microchip was further used to monitor cellular Raman signals responding to in-situ electroporation (EP). The results showed molecular changes of single cell under different EP conditions and provided guidance for EP parameter optimization.