Researchers in McGill's Department of Physics have developed a new device that can trap and study DNA molecules without touching or damaging them. The device, which uses carefully tuned electric fields, offers scientists unprecedented control over how DNA behaves in real time, creating the opportunity for faster, more precise molecular analysis that could improve diagnostics, genome mapping and the study of disease-related molecules.
Doctoral student Matheus Azevedo Silva Pessôa, a nanofluids researcher, developed the tool in collaboration with his fellow students in Professor Walter Reisner's Nanobiophysics lab. Researchers from Professor Sara Mahshid's Bioengineering lab at McGill, genomics technology startup Dimension Genomics, and the University of California, Santa Barbara also contributed.
The paper, "Single-molecule capture, release, and dynamical manipulation via reversible electrokinetic confinement (RECON)," is published in Science Advances.
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