Two important aspects of preparing useful biochips are reproducibility and sensitivity. For many sensor preparation methods, the immobilization of probe molecules onto solid supports is the most important step in determining their overall quality. This study aims to determine the effects of changing headgroup size on the DNA monolayer's lateral spacing, the monolayers' reproducibility, and the degree of sensitivity with which the monolayer can capture target molecules from solution. The probe DNA strands are synthesized by conjugating dendrimers to DNA molecules. Dendrimers' size increases with generation, allowing better control over the probe molecules' lateral spacing, and they have multiple attachment points for robust binding, resulting in a higher level of reproducibility. Grazing Angle Infrared Spectroscopy has shown the successful preparation of DNA/Dendron conjugate monolayers. Elemental analysis from X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy further confirmed conjugate monolayer preparation. Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) was used to examine the functionality of the monolayers, where it was seen that the monolayer was able to capture target molecules from solution with a high degree of sensitivity. Moreover, SPR experiments demonstrate that the DNA monolayer becomes decreasingly dense with increasing dendrimer generation, verifying that headgroup size influences DNA lateral spacing.

Characterization of DNA/dendron conjugate monolayers on gold

246th National Meeting (2013)

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