bmdo technologies for biomedical applications - MDA Technology

RAMAN-BASED GENEPROBE TECHNOLOGY• Dr. Vo-Dinh’s nonradioactive, nonfluorescentgene probe is safe and sensitive.BMDO HISTORYWith the help of funding through BMDO’s Innovative Science andTechnology Directorate and the Department of Energy, an advanced opticaltechnology called surface-enhanced Raman optical data storage(SERODS) was born. Developed to greatly expand data storage capabilitiesbeyond those achievable with conventional silicon technology, SERODSalso spawned a novel gene probe technology,SERGen. SERGen requires no radioactivetags or special fluorescing dyes and cutsSince the race togene identification time drastically, from assequence the humanmany as 16 hours to a matter of minutes. Itgenome began, about 20 can also be used with conventional molecularbiology techniques such as polymerasepercent of human genes chain reaction.have been at least partiallyHOW IT WORKSSurface-enhanced Raman spectroscopysequenced. However, (SERS) is the basis for SERGen’s ability todistinguish between single-stranded andscientists have identified double-stranded DNA. Adsorbing a genesequence of interest onto an “enhancing”functions for only 3 percentof the postulatedmicrostructured metal surface greatlystrengthens the Raman signal, allowing aresearcher to detect minute quantities of80,000 to 100,000 genes. specific DNA sequences with a spectroscope.When a gene sequence of interest isintroduced into the reaction, the SERSprobe seeks out its complementary partner on the reaction plate; thisprocess is known as hybridization. Hybridization indicates that a matchhas been made between two complementary strands of DNA. The doublestrandedhybrids give a unique Raman signal, distinguishing them fromthe single-stranded, unmatched sequences.54MEDICAL SIGNIFICANCEThere are many areas in which SERGen would prove useful because of itsrapidity and sensitivity. For example, in our era of increasing antibioticresistance, SERGen may prove a boon to doctors who want to quicklyidentify resistant organisms. In this way, the proper medication can be prescribedand a wasted course of ineffective antibiotics can be avoided. Thereare many known resistance genes in bacteria. With a simple probe that representsthe sequence of the resistance gene, SERGen can immediately identifythis unique biochemical tag to narrow drug treatment choices.Chapter 2 - Observation TechnologiesSection C - DiagnosisBMDO Technologies for Biomedical Applications