Use of Multiple Fluorescent Labels in Biological Sensing

摘要

This research project was aimed at finding new, more efficient and effective ways to detect, identify, and study biomolecules. The approach to be taken is to start with fluorescent nucleoside-like molecules in which the DNA base is replaced with known hydrocarbon and heterocycle fluorophores. These molecules are termed "fluorosides", short for "fluorescent deoxyribosides". They can be assembled on a DNA synthesizer into any desired number and order, both alone and alongside natural DNA bases. The specific aims of the project were (A) to find enzymes that can label biomolecules with excimer-forming fluorophores, resulting in labels that are brighter and have longer Stokes shifts than the current standard; (B) to make excimer- and exciplex-forming probes for repetitive DNA sequences such as telomeres and centromeres, and to demonstrate them both outside and inside cells; and (C) to make novel polyfluorophore molecules that can sense many different types of small molecules, both in solution phase and in the vapor phase.