Designing ultrasensitive digital bioassays based on DNA technology

The ability to detect extremely low concentrations of biomolecules, such as protein biomarkers, is crucial for the early-stage detection of many diseases, and is therefore indispensable for improving diagnostic tools for public health. However, major challenges arising in the biosensor field include the lack of sensitivity, specificity, reproducibility, multiplexing capability and stability of the diagnostic test. Many of these challenges originate from the interaction between target and receptor and how the signal generation is triggered. In this project we hypothesize that by using some interesting physical, chemical and functional properties of DNA, we can design an innovative single-step bioassay for ultrasensitive biomarker detection on a digital microfluidic platform. The single-step bioassay will be implemented on an in-house developed lab-on-chip device allowing further miniaturization and automation. We believe that the results obtained in this project will be beneficial both for scientists and clinicians looking for new molecular insights and ultrasensitive detection of disease biomarkers

Keywords:magnetic microparticle, biosensor, digital microfluidics, DNAzyme, DNA origami

Disciplines:Scientific computing, Bioinformatics and computational biology, Public health care, Public health services