microRNA profiling technique using DNA charge transfer principle

Dr. Dula Man
Tuesday, November 10, 2009, 4:00 pm, Engineering 2 Building, Room 280
Hosted by Assistant Professor Nader Pourmand
Biomolecular Engineering

Abstract

DNA charge transfer has been a hot topic in Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Engineering, and was being studied extensively in last two decades. Experimental and theoretical studies confirmed that charge can only transport through unperturbed DNA pi stack. Taking advantage of this fact, several patents were issued and many literature articles were published on DNA SNPs detection. Long distance charge transfer through DNA is well documented and has been studied mainly through biochemical assays, time-resolved spectroscopic measurements, and electrochemical analysis. Particularly, the electrochemical study is well advanced and the technology is commercialized. However, the less multiplex-ability and the intrinsic noise level, the commercial products have limited usage.

The fluorescence detection technique is single molecular level sensitive and is applicable to single molecule spectroscopy and microscopy. Moreover, the state-of-the-art microarray systems are unanimously adopting the fluorescent scanning technique despite the instrument and reagent cost. Such a sensitive and well established technique is insufficiently used in DNA charge transfer study.

I will present my proposed research on microRNA profiling technique using DNA charge transfer principle in this talk. The importance of profiling microRNA is highlighted by its association with many serious diseases. Designing a universal elegant capture probe, the detection of each microRNA will be achieved with single molecular sensitivity and single nucleotide selectivity. The universal probe is consisted of a combination of photoinduced hole injector NI, hole sensitive fluorescence quencher component, and a FRET responsive dye. Upon microRNA perfectly matches to the probe sequence, the probe will fluoresce when photo-excited both injector and the dye. This technique will be multiplexed on a microarray chip with current industry standard, and the profiling and discovery of novel microRNAs will be made with fast and inexpensive procedures.

Biography

Dr. Dula Man is an ethnic Mongolian from Inner Mongolia, China. He obtained B.Sc in Biology and M.Sc in Entomology from Inner Mongolia Normal University, and PhD in Molecular Biology from University of Texas at El Paso, and postdoc training in X-ray crystallography at UC Irvine.  Dula has been surfing and diving into the fields from Organism Biology, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, to Biophysics. In addition to his broad spectrum of learning and doing, Dula is intensely interested in biosensor development research, particularly on-chip detection of nucleic acids and proteins. He conceptualized an idea of microRNA profiling technology and wrote a NIH challenge grant proposal.