Newswise—A team led by the University of California San Diego has developed a chip that can detect a type of genetic mutation known as a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and send the results in real-time to a smartphone, computer, or other electronic device. The chip is at least 1,000 times more sensitive at detecting an SNP than current technology.

The advance, published July 9 in Advanced Materials, could lead to cheaper, faster, and portable biosensors for early detection of genetic markers for diseases such as cancer.

An SNP is the change in a single nucleotide base (A, C, G, or T) in the DNA sequence. It is the most common type of genetic mutation. While most SNPs have no discernible effect on health, some are associated with increased risk of developing pathological conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, neurodegenerative disorders, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases.

Traditional SNP detection methods have several limitations: they have relatively poor sensitivity and specificity; they require amplification to get multiple copies for detection; they require the use of bulky instruments; and they cannot work wirelessly.

The new DNA biosensor developed by the UC San Diego-led team is a wireless chip that’s smaller than a fingernail and can detect an SNP that’s present in picomolar concentrations in solution.

“Miniaturized chip-based electrical detection of DNA could enable in-field and on-demand detection of specific DNA sequences and polymorphisms for timely diagnosis or prognosis of pending health crises, including viral and bacterial infection-based epidemics,” said Ratnesh Lal, professor of bioengineering, mechanical engineering, and materials science at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.

The chip essentially captures a strand of DNA containing a specific SNP mutation and then produces an electrical signal that is sent wirelessly to a mobile device. It consists of a graphene field effect transistor with a specially engineered piece of double-stranded DNA attached to the surface. This piece of DNA is bent near the middle and shaped like a pair of tweezers. One side of these so-called “DNA tweezers” codes for a specific SNP. Whenever a DNA strand with that SNP approaches, it binds to that side of the DNA tweezers, opening them up and creating a change in electrical current that is detected by the graphene field effect transistor.

The project is led by Lal and involves teams at the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UC San Diego, Chinese Academy of Sciences in China, University of Pennsylvania, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany, and Inner Mongolia Agricultural University in China.