“…For the studies, the solution of VLPs was drop-casted onto a 12 nm-thick Au film deposited onto an α-Al 2 O 3 (0001) (ALO) single-crystal substrate. The selection of the substrate was not incidental, as gold films deposited onto dielectric substrates enhance the SERS effect. , In addition to VLPs and VLP/mAb complexes, measurements were also performed for clean Au/ALO, as well as AuNPs, AuNPs/BSSP, S1 proteins, and mAbs, deposited from solutions onto Au/ALO. In the case of a clean Au/ALO substrate, bands located at 416, 428, 448, 488, 575, 706, 748, 826, 1266, 1370, 1400, and 1657 cm –1 were observed (Table S1).…”