Kazuo Umemura
Tokyo University of Science, Japan
Title: Conjugates of DNA and Carbon nanotubes as nanobiosensors
Biography
Biography: Kazuo Umemura
Abstract
Hybrids of DNA and single-walled carbon nanotubes (DNA-SWNT hybrids) are promising candidates for nanobiosensing devices. Although SWNTs are insoluble in water, mono-dispersed suspension of SWNTs are obtained when the surfaces of SWNTs are covered with DNA molecules. Then, use of the DNA-SWNT hybrids as a nanobiosensor is available by detecting minute changes of optical or electrical properties of SWNTs that are originated from some perturvaion such as injection of chemicals to the suspension. In this work, we systematically charcterized DNA-SWNT hybrids by near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, fluorescent spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and atomic force microscopy. As a result, our data indicated that comibination of several optical measurements for similar sapmles was effective to obtain detailed information. For example, it was valuable to measure not only fluorescnet spectra but also NIR spectra of fluorescent labelled DNA-SWNT hybrids. NIR revealed unique responses even for fluorescent labelled samples. Our results involve helpful information to establish nanobiosensors using SWNTs.