The nanotechnology of diagnosis

A new study led by University of Kentucky researchers shows a new way to precisely detect a single chemical at extremely low concentrations. The study shows that the phi29 DNA packaging nanomotor connector can be used to sense chemicals with reactive thioesters or maleimide using single channel conduction assays based on three observable fingerprints. This ability to detect chemicals at this concentration could have a wide variety of applications from environmental monitoring to security to drug testing. It could also be useful in disease detection. "Sensitivity of detection is a major challenge in the diagnosis of many diseases," said Peixuan Guo, whose lab led the study. "Our next step is to find one metabolic product of one disease and determine the reality in earlier disease diagnosis."