US Patent 8018595 - Detecting biomaterial using gold nanoparticles

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8018595.html

This patent from Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute includes some broad claims for the use of gold nanoparticles in biomedical research. Claim 1 reads:

1. An apparatus for detecting bio materials, comprising:

a bio material reacting unit comprising bio sensing materials immobilized on gold nanoparticles;

an optical source unit configured to emit light toward the bio material reacting unit; and

a detecting unit configured to measure variations of surface absorbance of the gold nanoparticles by detecting light transmitted through the bio material reacting unit before and after a bio material is bound to the bio sensing materials.