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Monday, 23rd April 2007 (4648 views)

The benefits of using gold nanotechnology keep on increasing after it was announced that they now can help develop single-stranded DNA sequencing.

Researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China discovered that by amalgamating gold nanoparticles and a polymer matrix, the results improved DNA sequencing by using capillary electrophoresis.

The study was led by Yanmei Wang and he and his team followed on from the research undertaken back in 2003 when double stranded DNA was successfully separated by gold nanoparticles and a polymer matrix.

At present, rather than using gold nanoparticles, the most favoured method of separation in terms of DNA is non-gel polymers like linear polyacrylamide. Mr Wang's work though has managed to find that gold nanoparticles were also beneficial in that they avoided DNA strands becoming stuck to the capillary walls.

Work among Mr Wang and his research team is now set to focus on determining which size of nanoparticle is optimum for separating DNA strands as well as the strength of the electric field.

 

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