New Blood Protein Diagnostics
November 22, 2011 | Terry Sharrer
Aptamers are oligonucleic acids or peptides that bind with specific molecules, and their existence has been known for about 20 years. Now, researchers at the University of Toledo (OH) are affixing aptamers to glass slides, coated with a nanolayer of gold to fabricate a means for detecting and measuring blood proteins that indicate early stage disease states. After the aptamer captures a target molecule, an optical sensing technique, Surface Plasmon Resonance, detects the match. MORE