<
https://www.umass.edu/news/article/bioengineering-breakthrough-increases-dna-detection-sensitivity-100-times>
"UMass Amherst researchers have pushed forward the boundaries of biomedical
engineering one hundredfold with a new method for DNA detection with
unprecedented sensitivity.
“DNA detection is in the center of bioengineering,” says Jinglei Ping, lead
author of the paper that appeared in
Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences. Ping is an assistant professor of mechanical and industrial
engineering, an adjunct assistant professor in biomedical engineering and
affiliated with the Center for Personalized Health Monitoring of the Institute
for Applied Life Sciences. “Everyone wants to detect the DNA at a low
concentration with a high sensitivity. And we just developed this method to
improve the sensitivity by about 100 times with no cost.”
With traditional detection methods, he says, “The challenge is basically
finding the needle in a haystack.” There are lots of molecules present in a
sample that aren’t the target DNA that can interfere with the result.
That’s where this method is different. The test sample is put within an
alternating electric field. Then, “We let the DNA dance,” he says. “When the
strands of DNA dance, they have a specific oscillation frequency.” Researchers
can then read samples to see if there is a molecule moving in a way that
matches the movement of the target DNA and easily distinguish it from different
movement patterns. This even works when there is a very low concentration of
the target DNA.
This new method has huge implications for speeding up disease detection. First,
because it is so sensitive, diagnoses can happen at earlier stages of a disease
progression, which can greatly impact health outcomes."
Via
What Could Go Right? October 12, 2023:
https://theprogressnetwork.org/israel-hamas-palestine-attacks-war/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
