Protein‐Protected Au Clusters as a New Class of Nanoscale Biosensor for Label‐Free Fluorescence Detection of Proteases

Destruction for detection: Protein-protected Au clusters are exploited as nanoscale sensors for label-free fluorescence detection of proteases with high sensitivity. The detection mechanism is based on degradation of the protein shell by a protease, allowing the O2 from ambient air to penetrate through and quench the fluorescence from the Au cluster. Detailed facts of importance to specialist readers are published as ”Supporting Information”. Such documents are peer-reviewed, but not copy-edited or typeset. They are made available as submitted by the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.