industry news
Subscribe Now

Improving DNA-Detecting Transistors

Tsukuba, Japan, Feb 24, 2017 – (ACN Newswire) – Researchers in India and Japan have developed an improved method for using graphene-based transistors to detect disease-causing genes.

Graphene field-effect transistors (GFETs) can detect harmful genes through DNA hybridization, which occurs when a ‘probe DNA’ combines, or hybridizes, with its complementary ‘target DNA.’ Electrical conduction changes in the transistor when hybridization occurs.

Nobutaka Hanagata of Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science and colleagues improved the sensors by attaching the probe DNA to the transistor through a drying process. This eliminated the need for a costly and time-consuming addition of ‘linker’ nucleotide sequences, which have been commonly used to attach probes to transistors.

The research team designed GFETs that consist of titanium-gold electrodes on graphene – a one-atom-thick layer of carbon – deposited on a silicon substrate. Then they deposited the DNA probe, in a saline solution, onto the GFET and left it to dry. They found that this drying process led to direct immobilization of the probe DNA on the graphene surface without a need for linkers. The target DNA, also in saline solution, was then added to the transistor and incubated for four hours for hybridization to occur.

The GFET operated successfully using this preparation method. A change in electrical conduction was detected when the probe and target combined, signaling the presence of a harmful target gene. Conduction did not change when other non-complementary DNA was applied.

DNA hybridization is usually detected by labelling the target with a fluorescent dye, which shines brightly when it combines with its probe. But this method involves a complicated labelling procedure and needs an expensive laser scanner to detect fluorescence intensity. GFETs could become a cheaper, easier to operate, and more sensitive alternative for detecting genetic diseases.

“Further development of this GFET device could be explored with enhanced performance for future biosensor applications, particularly in the detection of genetic diseases,” conclude the researchers in their study published in the journal Science and Technology of Advanced Materials.

Article information:

Arun Kumar Manoharan, Shanmugavel Chinnathambi, Ramasamy Jayavel and Nobutaka Hanagata
“Simplified detection of the hybridized DNA using a graphene field effect transistor”
Science and Technology of Advanced Materials, 2017; 18:1, 43-50. 
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14686996.2016.1253408

For further information please contact: 

Nobutaka Hanagata, 
Nanotechnology Innovation Station, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan 
HANAGATA.Nobutaka@nims.go.jp

Journal information

Science and Technology of Advanced Materials (STAM), http://www.tandfonline.com/stam is an international open access journal in materials science. The journal covers a broad spectrum of topics, including synthesis, processing, theoretical analysis and experimental characterization of materials. Emphasis is placed on the interdisciplinary nature of materials science and on issues at the forefront of the field, such as energy and environmental issues, as well as medical and bioengineering applications.

Leave a Reply

featured blogs
Sep 21, 2023
Wireless communication in workplace wearables protects and boosts the occupational safety and productivity of industrial workers and front-line teams....
Sep 26, 2023
5G coverage from space has the potential to make connectivity to the Internet truly ubiquitous for a broad range of use cases....
Sep 26, 2023
Explore the LPDDR5X specification and learn how to leverage speed and efficiency improvements over LPDDR5 for ADAS, smartphones, AI accelerators, and beyond.The post How LPDDR5X Delivers the Speed Your Designs Need appeared first on Chip Design....
Sep 26, 2023
The eighth edition of the Women in CFD series features Mary Alarcon Herrera , a product engineer for the Cadence Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) team. Mary's unwavering passion and dedication toward a career in CFD has been instrumental in her success and has led her ...
Sep 21, 2023
Not knowing all the stuff I don't know didn't come easy. I've had to read a lot of books to get where I am....

Featured Video

Chiplet Architecture Accelerates Delivery of Industry-Leading Intel® FPGA Features and Capabilities

Sponsored by Intel

With each generation, packing millions of transistors onto shrinking dies gets more challenging. But we are continuing to change the game with advanced, targeted FPGAs for your needs. In this video, you’ll discover how Intel®’s chiplet-based approach to FPGAs delivers the latest capabilities faster than ever. Find out how we deliver on the promise of Moore’s law and push the boundaries with future innovations such as pathfinding options for chip-to-chip optical communication, exploring new ways to deliver better AI, and adopting UCIe standards in our next-generation FPGAs.

To learn more about chiplet architecture in Intel FPGA devices visit https://intel.ly/45B65Ij

featured paper

Accelerating Monte Carlo Simulations for Faster Statistical Variation Analysis, Debugging, and Signoff of Circuit Functionality

Sponsored by Cadence Design Systems

Predicting the probability of failed ICs has become difficult with aggressive process scaling and large-volume manufacturing. Learn how key EDA simulator technologies and methodologies enable fast (minimum number of simulations) and accurate high-sigma analysis.

Click to read more

featured chalk talk

NXP GoldVIP: Integration Platform for Intelligent Connected Vehicles
Today’s intelligent connected vehicle designs are smarter and safer than ever before and this has a lot to do with a rapidly increasing technological convergence of sensors, machine learning, over the air updates, in-vehicle high bandwidth networking and more. In this episode of Chalk Talk, Amelia Dalton chats with Brian Carlson from NXP about NXP’s new GoldVIP Platform. They examine the benefits that this kind of software integration platform can bring to automotive designs and how you can take a test drive of the GoldVIP for yourself.
Nov 29, 2022
36,184 views