Sequence-Detecting Nanoscale Sensor

Posted by timothy on Sunday June 22, 2003 @09:46AM from the gattica-or-utopia dept.

Makarand writes "A nanoscale sensor made of a single molecule - just 20 nanometers long - capable of detecting a specific short sequence in a mix of DNA or RNA molecules has been created by physicists at UCLA. This nanoscale sensor could be used to detect the early stages of cancers for which genetic markers are well known or extremely minute traces of biological weapons. When a target molecule binds to the probe molecule in the sensor, the probe molecule changes shape and pulls on the sensor. The motion of the sensor is detected by an optical technique to measure conformational changes in the probe molecule at the nanometer scale."

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Might be useful for detecting contagious diseases by Animats · 2003-06-22 17:02 · Score: 4, Interesting

This could lead to walk-through portals that detect contagious diseases like SARS. Detection is now too slow for use in airports, but something like this could change all that.