Objective
In this project we will develop a broadly applicable signal amplification system that relies on chemical catalysis for biosensing purposes. In preliminary experiments it was demonstrated that the functionalization of two oligonucleotides with triphenyl phosphine ligands and their hybridization on a target DNA strand produced a very efficient catalyst for the dehalogenation of an iodinated boron dipyrromethane (BODIPY) dye. The removal of the iodine transforms the non-fluorescent chromophore into a highly fluorescent dye. In this way, a single hybridization event results in more than 1000 fluorescent reporters and extremely low detection limits of 10 fM were successfully realized. Herein it is planned to extend this concept of signal amplification to commercially relevant technologies like Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assays (ELISAs) or DNA microarrays. For that purpose different ligands will be synthesized and the reactivity as well as the spectral range of the BODIPY reporters will be varied. These experimental efforts, therefore, represent a broadening of our existing proof of concept experiments.
Besides this experimental work, we will write up a business plan to commercialize our technology and receive further funding like seed grants or venture capital. There is a strong need in the in vitro diagnostic industry to fabricate improved analytical tests to detect new disease markers at low concentrations. With the catalytic signal amplification system several of these needs can be fulfilled. Due to the broad applicability of our technology platform it is envisioned to found a spin-off company that acts as service provider for the diagnostic industry.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsDNA
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistryhalogens
- natural scienceschemical sciencescatalysis
- natural scienceschemical sciencesinorganic chemistrymetalloids
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsenzymes
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Call for proposal
ERC-2011-PoC
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
CSA-SA(POC) - Supporting action (Proof of Concept)Host institution
9712CP Groningen
Netherlands