Topic details
| Topic | Peptide nucleic acids/polymer brush based biosensing platforms for the label-free detection of blood circulating cell-free nucleic acid fragments |
|---|---|
| Supervisor | Ognen Pop-Georgievski, Ph.D. |
| Consultant | Mgr. Vladimír Proks, Ph.D. |
| Department | Chemistry and Physics of Surfaces and Biointerfaces |
| Description | Functional and conformationally restricted DNA analogs, such as peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) can possibly enhance biosensor sensitivity and selectivity when used as biorecognition elements of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) biosensors. The versatility of PNAs can be even increased if they are bound to a passive background of polymer brushes that cancel out the non-specific protein adsorption from blood plasma or serum. Such, PNA/polymer brush-based biosensors can be used to target blood circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) fragments stemming from cancerous cells and tumors, and thus help the early cancer diagnosis. The main objective of this project is to synthesize “clickable” cfDNA targeting PNAs, selectively bind them to reactive non-fouling polymer brush layers and thus perform functional SPR and QCM biosensors. The work will focus on peptide synthesis, polymer chemistry and surface modification. Furthermore, the project focuses on detailed characterization of the synthesized structures via various surface analytical techniques spectroscopic ellipsometry, infrared reflection-adsorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, quartz crystal microbalance, AFM, etc. |
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