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Grant support

This work was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (CTQ2014-59808R, CTQ2017-88648R, and RYC-2016-20331), the Agencia para la Competitividad de la Empresa de la Generalitat de Cataluna (2017SGR883, and 2014DI052), the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2017PFR-URV-B2-02), and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili and Banco Santander (2017EXIT-08). Funding was also received from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skodowska-Curie Grant No. 712.949 (TECNIOspring PLUS).

Analysis of institutional authors

Alvarez-Puebla RaCorresponding AuthorGuerrini LCorresponding Author

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Review

Direct surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy of nucleic acids: from fundamental studies to real-life applications.

Publicated to:Chemical Society Reviews. 47 (13): 4909-4923 - 2018-07-07 47(13), DOI: 10.1039/c7cs00809k

Authors: Garcia-Rico, Eduardo; Alvarez-Puebla, Ramon A; Guerrini, Luca

Affiliations

;Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Department of Physical and Inorganic Chemistry - EMaS, Carrer de Marcel - Author
cat and ICREA, Passeig Lluís Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain - Author
Fdn Invest HM Hosp, San Bernardo 101, Madrid 28015, Spain - Author
Fundacion de Investigacion HM Hospitales, San Bernardo 101, 28015 Madrid, Spain and School of Medicine, San Pablo CEU, Calle Julián Romea, 18, 28003 Madrid, Spain - Author
ICREA, Passeig Lluis Co 23, Barcelona 08010, Spain - Author
lí Domingo s/n, 43007 Tarragona, Spain - Author
San Pablo CEU, Sch Med, Calle Julian Romea 18, Madrid 28003, Spain - Author
Univ Rovira & Virgili, Dept Phys & Inorgan Chem EMaS, Carrer Marcel Li Domingo S-N, E-43007 Tarragona, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Plasmonic optical biosensors for the analysis of nucleic acids have drawn a great deal of interest in nanomedicine because of their capability to overcome major limitations of conventional methods. Within this realm, surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-based sensing is progressively emerging as a powerful analytical tool beyond the basic grounds of academia to viable commercial products. SERS benefits from the synergistic combination between the intrinsic structural specificity and experimental flexibility of Raman spectroscopy, the extremely high sensitivity provided by plasmonic nanomaterials, and the tremendous advances in nanofabrication techniques and spectroscopic instrumentation. SERS application to nucleic acids analysis has been largely restricted to indirect sensing approaches, where a SERS reporter and oligonucleotide ligands are typically combined onto the nanomaterials to enable extrinsic detection of the target sequences. On the other hand, the acquisition of the intrinsic SERS vibrational fingerprint of nucleic acids (direct sensing) has traditionally suffered from major limitations. However, recent years have witnessed a burst of interest in this area, largely driven by the efforts to address key reproducibility and sensitivity issues. In this tutorial review, we summarize and discuss the most recent cutting-edge research in the field of direct SERS sensing of nucleic acids by coherently organising the diverse data reported in the literature in a structurally logical fashion.

Keywords

ClassificationDirect quantificationDistinctionDna detectionLabel-free detectionNanoparticlesNanoprobesNucleic acidsOligonucleotidesRnaSingleSpectrum analysis, ramanSurface properties

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Chemical Society Reviews due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2018, it was in position 2/172, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Chemistry, Multidisciplinary. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 4.65. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 6.37 (source consulted: FECYT Feb 2024)
  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 20.56 (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-14, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 194
  • Scopus: 219
  • Europe PMC: 47
  • OpenCitations: 192

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-14:

  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 168 (PlumX).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: Last Author (Guerrini, Luca).

the authors responsible for correspondence tasks have been Alvarez Puebla, Ramon Angel and Guerrini, Luca.