Polynucleotide Brushes by Surface Initiated Enzymatic Polymerization

Over the past few years we have been working on the development of a new isothermal fluorescence signal amplification and detection scheme that exploits the ability of terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase (TdTase) to add up to 100 fluorescent nucleotides to the end of a short DNA tag with an exposed 3’-OH. DNA microarrays that are printed on the nonfouling polymer brush exhibit low background signal, yet allow on-chip fluorescence signal amplification, leading to DNA microarrays that exhibit picomolar LOD. We are working on extending this approach to the on-chip detection of microRNA.

Publications

Nonfouling biosensors. A. Chilkoti; A. Franklin; B. Yellen; A. Hucknall; D. Joh; R. Abedini-Nassab; J. Andrews. (2022).
Enzymatic Polymerization of High Molecular Weight DNA Amphiphiles That Self-Assemble into Star-Like Micelles. L. Tang; V. Tjong; N. Li; Y.G. Yingling; A. Chilkoti; S. Zauscher. (2014).
“Smart” DNA interfaces. V. Tjong; L. Tang; S. Zauscher; A. Chilkoti. (2014).