Samuel Afuwape, a National University researcher at San Diego explains about the designing of a portable DNA detector which may aid in sensing the DNA fragments from a sample in a powerful and faster way. The new device, named as ISFET, is supposed to aid in a number of fields including Medicine and Environmental Studies.
Clinicians and medical researchers too could use it to diagnose genetic disorders and study problems in genetics.Such a sensor might also be used to spot the weapons of the bioterrorist or in criminal forensic investigations.
Afuwape suggests that a new type of electronic device, the ion-selective field-effect transistor (ISFET), might be integrated into a DNA biosensor. Such a sensor would be coated with thousands of known DNA sequences that could match up - hybridize - with specific DNA fragments in a given medical or environmental sample.
The key to making the system work is that the ISFET can measure changes in conductivity. Constructing a sensor so that the process of DNA hybridization is coupled to a chemical reaction that generates electricity would produce discrete electronics signals. These signals would be picked up by the ISFET.
The characteristic pattern of the signals would correspond to hybridization of a known DNA sequence on the sensor and so could reveal the presence of its counterpart DNA in the sample.
Afuwape's mathematical work demonstrates that various known chemical reaction circuits involving DNA could be exploited in such a sensor.
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The study is published in the International Journal of Nanotechnology.
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