Miniaturized DNA Biosensor for Decentralized Breast-Cancer Screening

摘要

The goal of this project has been to develop and characterize an electrochemical microsystem for the rapid point-of-care genetic screening of breast-cancer. We introduced new electrical DNA biosensing routes for genetic screening of breast-cancer. These include novel nanoparticle-based bioassays, label-free schemes based on the intrinsic electroactivity of DNA and coding protocols for multi-target DNA detection. By addressing the major challenge of signal amplification, our research has led to major improvements in the sensitivity of electrical biosensing of DNA segments specific to breast-cancer gene BRCAl. These new advances have been coupled with new schemes for minimizing non-specific adsorption and discriminating against non-complementary sequences. Such coupling of high sensitivity, specificity, and multi-target detection capabilities permits electrical DNA assays to rival the most advanced optical protocols. The new particle-based detection and coding technologies offer great promise for developing fast, simple, and user-friendly DNA sensing devices for point-of-care breast-cancer testing.