- Jan 7, 2002
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ITHACA, N.Y. -- Some people are never satisfied. First, nanotechnology researchers at Cornell University built a device so sensitive it could detect the mass of a single bacterium--about 665 femtograms. Then they built one that could sense the presence of a single virus -- about 1.5 femtograms. Now, with a refined technique, they have detected a single DNA molecule, weighing in at 995,000 Daltons -- a shade more than 1 attogram -- and can even count the number of DNA molecules attached to a single receptor by noting the difference in mass.
The devices, which fall in the class of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), could be made even more sensitive through increased miniaturization, the researchers say.
The technology, they suggest, can be combined with microfluidics to perform genetic analysis of very small samples of DNA, even the amount present in a single cell. Current techniques for genetic analysis require small samples of DNA to be replicated many times through a process called PCR amplification. DNA analysis can be used, among other things, to detect genetic markers for cancer susceptibility.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May05/DNAcount.ws.html
The devices, which fall in the class of nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), could be made even more sensitive through increased miniaturization, the researchers say.
The technology, they suggest, can be combined with microfluidics to perform genetic analysis of very small samples of DNA, even the amount present in a single cell. Current techniques for genetic analysis require small samples of DNA to be replicated many times through a process called PCR amplification. DNA analysis can be used, among other things, to detect genetic markers for cancer susceptibility.
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/May05/DNAcount.ws.html
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