title: Gene Detection in Complex Biological Media Using Semiconductor Nanorods within an Integrated Microfluidic Device.
abstract: The salient optical properties of highly luminescent semiconductor nanocrystals render them ideal fluorophores for clinical diagnostics, therapeutics, and highly sensitive biochip applications. Microfluidic systems allow miniaturization and integration of multiple biochemical processes in a single device and do not require sophisticated diagnostic tools. Herein, we describe a microfluidic system that integrates RNA extraction, reverse transcription to cDNA, amplification and detection within one integrated device to detect histidine decarboxylase (HDC) gene directly from human white blood cells samples. When anisotropic semiconductor nanorods (NRs) were used as the fluorescent probes, the detection limit was found to be 0.4 ng of total RNA, which was much lower than that obtained using spherical quantum dots (QDs) or organic dyes. This was attributed to the large action cross-section of NRs and their high probability of target capture in a pull-down detection scheme. The combination of large scale integrated microfluidics with highly fluorescent semiconductor NRs may find widespread utility in point-of-care devices and multitarget diagnostics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore , 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors.forename: Xinyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore , 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Adriani
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research & Engineering A*STAR , 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602, Singapore.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore , 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors.forename: Sabyasachi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakrabortty
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore , 18 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors.forename: Giorgia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pastorin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore , 18 Science Drive 4, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors.forename: Han Kiat
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore , 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore.
authors.forename: Wee Han
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Ang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, National University of Singapore , 3 Science Drive 3, Singapore 117543, Singapore.|Institute of Materials Research & Engineering A*STAR , 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602, Singapore.
authors.forename: Yinthai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D016880:Anisotropy; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry; D006640:Histidine Decarboxylase / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D046210:Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D043942:Nanotubes / Q000737:chemistry*; D045663:Quantum Dots; D012313:RNA / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood*; D012666:Semiconductors
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D012313:RNA; D006640:Histidine Decarboxylase