
University:
Jackson State University
Major:
Chemistry
Mentor(s):
Janice Hong
Faculty Sponsor(s):
Guillermo Bazan
Faculty Sponsor's Department(s):
Chemistry and Biochemistry
Project Title:
SYNTHESIS OF CONJUGATED POLYMERS FOR APPLICATIONS IN DNA DETECTION
Project Description:
The detection of small quantities of biological targets has always imposed limitations on
research and diagnostics. Currently, tests for the presence of DNA require that the DNA be
amplified or grown in order to identify a specific target. In poorer countries, it is the cost of
diagnosis and the time required to diagnose, not the therapeutic drugs, which often prevents
treatment. Accuracy, selectivity, and repeatability have hindered the majority of current
biosensors that have been proposed to resolve this diagnostic problem. In the research
presented here, the Bazan lab has proposed a biosensor so sensitive and repeatable that the
costly DNA amplification can be reduced and perhaps eliminated. The sequence-specific
biosensor presented uses technology based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET)
between cationic conjugated polymers (CCPs) and fluorescent dye-labeled peptide nucleic acid
(PNA) probes, which are synthetic analogues of DNA with a charge-neutral and peptide
backbone. The CCPs binds to the DNA then it uses its light harvesting properties to transfer
energy to amplify the signal of the dye when close enough, the PNA probes selectively identify
DNA when complementary, and the fluorescent dye is an indicator which informs if the PNA is
complementary or non-complementary.