Rice News from Riceplus Magazine 8 10-2013
Scientists use blur to sharpen nanoscale DNA mapping (w/video) (Nanowerk News) With high-tech optical tools and sophisticated mathematics, Rice University researchers have found a way to pinpoint the location of specific sequences along single strands of DNA, a technique that could someday help diagnose genetic diseases. Proof-of-concept experiments in the Rice lab of chemist Christy Landes identified DNA sequences as short as 50 nucleotides at room temperature, a feat she said is impossible with standard microscopes that cannot see targets that small, or electron microscopes that require targets to be in a vacuum or cryogenically frozen. team The technique called “super-localization microscopy� has been known for a while, Landes said, but its application in biosensing is just beginning. Scientists have seen individual double-stranded DNA molecules under optical microscopes for years, but the ability to see single-stranded DNA is a new achievement, and breaking the diffraction limit of light adds value, she said. The work by Landes, Rice postdoctoral associate Jixin Chen and undergraduate student Alberto Bremauntz is detailed in the American Chemical Society journal Applied Materials and Interfaces ("Super-Resolution mbPAINT for Optical Localization of Single-Stranded DNA").