Plasmonic DNA: Towards Genetic Diagnosis Chips

The present paper summarizes some of our activities in the field of plasmonic DNA and genetic diagnosis, presenting our system and its capabilities before showing data related to the design and use of functionalized biochips of increasing complexity along with various experimental hybridization conditions, including solutions containing one type of purified synthetic short oligonucleotides or PCR-amplified DNA samples from patients. The diagnosis capability of our system was evaluated by detecting several point mutations that alter the function of the CFTR gene and cause cystic fibrosis, a frequent monogenic disorder selected as a clinical model system.