Direct concentration of circulating DNA by using a nanostructured tip

Woon-Hong Yeo; Jae-Hyun Chung; Yaling Liu; Kyong-Hoon Lee

doi:10.1117/12.795098

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29 August 2008 Direct concentration of circulating DNA by using a nanostructured tip

Woon-Hong Yeo, Jae-Hyun Chung, Yaling Liu, Kyong-Hoon Lee

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Proceedings Volume 7035, Biosensing; 70350N (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.795098
Event: NanoScience + Engineering, 2008, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Nucleic acids circulating in body fluids are drawing great attention due to their potential use for disease diagnostics and prognostics. Current detection methods have yet to demonstrate the capability to selectively detect the low abundance nucleic acids. The challenge lies in the separation of circulating DNA from the genomic DNA in normal cells. Here we present an approach employing a nano-structured tip, which directly concentrates nucleic acids to the tip from a sample solution. The high aspect ratio tip is able to collect nucleic acid molecules out of a buffer solution by using dielectrophoretic (DEP) and surface tension force. The DEP force attracts DNA and other biomolecules in the vicinity of a nanotip from the sample solution. Among the attracted molecules, circulating nucleic acids whose dimensions are much smaller than the nanotip diameter are selectively captured to the tip while other bioparticles comparable to or larger than the tip diameter remain in the solution due to surface tension induced force. The concentrated DNA molecules are characterized by SEM, X-ray, and fluorescent microscopy, which demonstrate DNA capturing out of a sample solution having a 1pg/mL DNA concentration. The nanotip-based capturing method will facilitate rapid, but highly sensitive detection of circulating DNA directly from minimally treated- or raw samples.

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Woon-Hong Yeo, Jae-Hyun Chung, Yaling Liu, and Kyong-Hoon Lee "Direct concentration of circulating DNA by using a nanostructured tip", Proc. SPIE 7035, Biosensing, 70350N (29 August 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.795098

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