We are pleased to announce the publication in the scientific journal Nanoscale (Royal Society of Chemistry) of work carried out by Paraskevi Gaki from Andrey Klymchenko's team in collaboration with BrightSens Diagnostics, as part of a Cifre project.
The study presents the development of fluorescent polymer nanoparticles functionalized by DNA (DNA-NPs). These unique nanoparticles combine the high light intensity of their polymer core with the molecular specificity of DNA.
They demonstrated that:
• DNA-NPs can hybridize with their complementary sequences even more efficiently than DNA strands alone, thanks to cooperative effects between the numerous strands attached to their surface;
• they retain the ability to discriminate single nucleotide mismatches, an essential characteristic for biomedical applications;
• their exceptional brightness allows for fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) detection of complementary DNA sequences down to extremely low concentrations (0.3 pM), a threshold where the hybridization process is limited by diffusion itself.
Why is this important?
These results pave the way for the development of a new generation of nanosensors. Thanks to their high sensitivity and selectivity, these nanosystems could play a key role in early molecular diagnosis, monitoring genetic or infectious diseases, and more broadly in the field of biosensing.
Congratulations on this fruitful collaboration !
Cooperative effects in DNA-functionalized polymeric nanoparticles. Paraskevi Gaki and Andrey S. Klymchenko
