“Artificial Nose” Based on DNA Technology Detects Organic Vapours

A new approach to building an “artificial nose” – using fluorescent compounds and DNA – could accelerate the use of sniffing sensors into the realm of mass production and widespread use, say chemists at Stanford University. If their method lives up to its promise, it could one day have a range of applications, detecting everything from incipiently souring milk to high explosives.

By sticking fluorescent compounds onto short strands of the molecules that form the backbone of DNA, the researchers have produced tiny sensor molecules that change color when they detect certain substances. The sensors were made using existing technology for synthesising DNA, and are viewed with a fluorescence microscope.

The colour changes enable the new sensors to convey far more information than most other existing optical sensors, which typically just detect one specific molecule, says Eric Kool, professor of chemistry and senior author of a paper published online this week in the German journal Angewandte Chemie.

“We were blown away by how strong the colour changes were,” Kool says. “One of the surprising findings was that we could tell the difference between four different organic vapours with just one sensor, because it would turn different colors with different vapours.”

The key to Kool’s versatile sensor molecules lies in the structure of DNA, the famous double helix that encodes the genetic blueprint for life, often described as looking like a twisted ladder. Two long parallel chains of sugar and phosphate molecules constitute the rails of the ladder, with the rungs made of pairs of molecules called bases. The arrangement of the bases, of which there are only four types, encodes the genetic data.

Kool’s team of researchers developed a new set of fluorescent replacements for the DNA bases – seven different ones they could choose from – to attach to the DNA backbone of the new sensor in place of the usual four. They used only a single helix, so the bases project out from a single twisted pole, ready to detect organic vapours.

More information on the research is available from Stanford University.

Tags: DNA, organic vapours, Stanford University