DNA Nanotweezers and Graphene Transistor Enable Label-Free Genotyping

Michael T Hwang; Zejun Wang; Jinglei Ping; Deependra Kumar Ban; Zi Chao Shiah; Leif Antonschmidt; Joon Lee; Yushuang Liu; Abhijith G Karkisaval; Alan T Charlie Johnson; Chunhai Fan; Gennadi Glinsky; Ratnesh Lal

doi:10.1002/adma.201802440

DNA Nanotweezers and Graphene Transistor Enable Label-Free Genotyping

Adv Mater. 2018 Jul 9:e1802440. doi: 10.1002/adma.201802440. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Materials Science and Engineering Program, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
² Division of Physical Biology and Bioimaging Center, Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, CAS Key Laboratory of Interfacial Physics and Technology, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 201800, China.
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA.
⁴ Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
⁵ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
⁶ NMR Based Structural Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, Am Fassberg 11, 37077, Göttingen, Germany.
⁷ School of Life Science, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, 306 Zhaowuda Road, Hohhot, 010018, China.
⁸ Institute of Engineering in Medicine, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.
⁹ Department of Bioengineering, University of California San Diego, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093, USA.

Abstract

Electronic DNA-biosensor with a single nucleotide resolution capability is highly desirable for personalized medicine. However, existing DNA-biosensors, especially single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection systems, have poor sensitivity and specificity and lack real-time wireless data transmission. DNA-tweezers with graphene field effect transistor (FET) are used for SNP detection and data are transmitted wirelessly for analysis. Picomolar sensitivity of quantitative SNP detection is achieved by observing changes in Dirac point shift and resistance change. The use of DNA-tweezers probe with high-quality graphene FET significantly improves analytical characteristics of SNP detection by enhancing the sensitivity more than 1000-fold in comparison to previous work. The electrical signal resulting from resistance changes triggered by DNA strand-displacement and related changes in the DNA geometry is recorded and transmitted remotely to personal electronics. Practical implementation of this enabling technology will provide cheaper, faster, and portable point-of-care molecular health status monitoring and diagnostic devices.

Keywords: DNA strand displacement; DNA tweezers; electrical wireless biosensor; graphene FET biosensor; single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) detection.

Abstract

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