Transport Effects on Multiple-Component Reactions in Optical Biosensors

Optical biosensors are often used to measure kinetic rate constants associated with chemical reactions. Such instruments operate in the \textit{surface-volume} configuration, in which ligand molecules are convected through a fluid-filled volume over a surface to which receptors are confined. Currently, scientists are using optical biosenors to measure the kinetic rate constants associated with DNA translesion synthesis--a process critical to DNA damage repair. Biosensor experiments to study this process involve multiple interacting components on the sensor surface. This multiple-component biosensor experiment is modeled with a set of nonlinear integrodifferential equations (IDEs). It is shown that in physically relevant asymptotic limits these equations reduce to a much simpler set of Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs). To verify the validity of our ODE approximation, a numerical method for the IDE system is developed and studied. Results from the ODE model agree with simulations of the IDE model, rendering our ODE model useful for parameter estimation.