Many diseases, including cancers, leave genetic clues in the
body just as criminals leave DNA at the scene of a crime. But
tools to detect the DNA-like sickness clues known as miRNAs,
tend to be slow and expensive. Now a chemist and a biologist
from University of Copenhagen have invented a method that
promises to shave days off the lab work done to reveal diseases,
using cheap methods and easy to use analytical apparatuses.
Chemistry researcher Tom Vosch and plant molecular biologist
Seong Wook Yang invented a DNA sensor, coupling genetic material
to a luminous molecule which goes dark only in the presence of a
specific target. Details on their invention, Silver Nano cluster
DNA-probes, are published in the high profile scientific
journal, ACS Nano and Tom Vosch is understandably proud of the
invention. "We invented a probe that emits light only as long as
the sample is clean. That is an unusually elegant and easy way
to screen for a particular genetic target", says Vosch. DNA-
clues help detecting disease You