title: Biosensors based on binding-modulated donor-acceptor distances.
abstract: The promising recognition characteristics exhibited by biomolecules have caused significant interest in biomolecule-based sensor strategies. Here we review several emerging biosensor designs that use modulated electron or energy transfer to a bio-specific ligand as the signaling mechanism. The efficiencies of both electron transfer and energy transfer are strongly dependent on donor-acceptor distance. When coupled with the large conformational changes sometimes associated with biomolecular recognition, these distance-dependent processes provide a robust means for generating optical and electronic signals.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nanobiology and Nanomedicine, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, PR China. fchh@sinap.ac.cn
authors.forename: Chunhai
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Kevin W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Plaxco
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Heeger
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D031541:Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D045663:Quantum Dots