Nucleic acid based biosensors: the desires of the user.
The need for nucleic acid based diagnostic tests has increased enormously in the last few years. On the one hand, this has been stimulated by the discovery of new hereditary genetic disease loci following the completion of the Human Genome Project, but also by the presence of new rapidly spreading viral threats, such as that of the SARS epidemic, or even micro-organisms released for the purpose of biological warfare. As in many instances rapid diagnoses of specific target genetic loci is required, new strategies have to be developed, which will allow this to be achieved directly at the point-of-care setting. One of these avenues being explored is that of biosensors. In this review, we provide an overview of the current state of the art concerning the high-throughput analysis of nucleic acids, and address future requirements, which will hopefully be met by new biosensor-based developments.
Hahn
Sinuhe
S
Laboratory for Prenatal Medicine, University Women's Hospital/Department of Research, University of Basel, Spitalstrasse 21, CH 4031 Basel, Switzerland. shahn@unbs.ch
Mergenthaler
Susanne
S
Zimmermann
Bernhard
B
Holzgreve
Wolfgang
W
D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000639:trends*; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000639:trends*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
D009696:Nucleic Acids