Nucleotide identification in DNA using dielectrophoresis spectroscopy

Abstract

We show that negative dielectrophoresis (DEP) spectroscopy is an effective transduction mechanism of a biosensor for the detection of single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a short DNA strand. We observed a frequency dependence of the negative DEP force applied by interdigitated electrodes to polystyrene microspheres (PM) with respect to changes in both the last and the second-to-last nucleotides of a single-strand DNA bound to the PM. The drift velocity of PM functionalized to single-strand DNA, which is proportional to the DEP force, was measured at the frequency range from 0.5 MHz to 2 MHz. The drift velocity was calculated using a custom-made automated software using real time image processing technique. This technology for SNP genotyping has the potential to be used in the diagnosis and the identification of genetic variants associated with diseases.