Friday, 04 April, 2025

Nanotechnology: DNA origami boosts sensitivity of rapid tests

An LMU team has developed a technology that can amplify the signals of biomarkers in conventional test strips more than a hundredfold. Now the researchers are commercializing the method.

 

Copyright: Christoph Hohmann, LMU

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, pretty much everybody is familiar with this technology: paper-based rapid test strips, also called lateral flow immunoassays (LFIAs). They enable easy detection of biomarkers that indicate the presence of specific pathogens or states of health. Now an LMU research group led by Heini Ijäs, Maximilian J. Urban, and Tim Liedl has managed to significantly improve such tests using a cutting-edge nanotechnology called DNA origami. DNA is folded--akin to the Japanese art of paper folding--to create nanoscale structures of virtually any shape. In this case the researchers engineered an nanoscale amplifier. The researchers from the Faculty of Physics and the Center for NanoScience (CeNS) have presented their results in the journal Nature Communications, laying out how the technique improves testing for a variety of biomarkers, including the heart attack marker, cardiac troponin I (cTnI), and the stroke marker, neurofilament light chain (Nfl).

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