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BIOSENSORS

Unamplified gene sensing via Cas9 on graphene

Nature Biomedical Engineering volume 3, pages 419–420 (2019)Cite this article

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An electrical biosensor that relies on the binding of target nucleic acid sequences to Cas9 immobilized on a graphene field-effect transistor enables the rapid detection of mutations in purified samples without the need for nucleic acid amplification.

Nucleic acid testing is fundamental to medical diagnostics, food analysis and environmental monitoring. In clinical diagnostics, genetic analysis is used for disease prevention, diagnosis and the monitoring of treatment1. The prevalence and spread of antimicrobial resistance worldwide, the (re)emergence of infectious-disease outbreaks (most recently, of Dengue and Zika) and the discovery of new nucleic-acid-based biomarkers, such as cancer-specific microRNAs, demand further technology development in nucleic acid testing2,3. Nucleic acid diagnostics involve primarily the detection of mutations in DNA sequences, of pathogen-specific oligonucleotides or of changes in gene-expression levels. Traditional methods of nucleic acid detection include microarrays, next-generation sequencing, isothermal amplification and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR; the current gold-standard). However, all these methods are time-intensive and expensive, as they require either prior amplification of the target genes, or complicated procedures for sample preparation or signal detection. This restricts these methods to well-equipped laboratories able to host sophisticated (and often bulky) instruments, operated by well-trained personnel. There is therefore urgent demand for the development of technologies for nucleic acid diagnostics that are highly selective for the target genes, rapid, inexpensive, easy-to-use and ideally amplification-free, as these characteristics would facilitate point-of-care applications in resource-limited settings, doctors’ practices and at home4,5.

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Fig. 1: CRISPR-powered biosensing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Sensors, Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Richard Bruch, Gerald A. Urban & Can Dincer

  2. Freiburg Center for Interactive Materials and Bioinspired Technologies (FIT), University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Richard Bruch & Can Dincer

  3. Freiburg Materials Research Center (FMF), University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Gerald A. Urban

  4. Department of Bioengineering, Royal School of Mines, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Can Dincer

Authors
  1. Richard Bruch
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  2. Gerald A. Urban
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  3. Can Dincer
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Correspondence to Can Dincer.

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Bruch, R., Urban, G.A. & Dincer, C. Unamplified gene sensing via Cas9 on graphene. Nat Biomed Eng 3, 419–420 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-019-0413-4

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