DNA -based hydrogels for high-performance optical biosensing application

[EN] Analyte-sensitive DNA-based hydrogels find multiple applications in the field of biosensors due to their adaptable nature. Here, the design of DNA-based hydrogel and its application as sensing platform for the detection of a specific target sequence are presented. DNA-functionalized hydrogel structures were formed via a free radical co-polymerization process. A simple one-step probe immobilization procedure is reported: DNA probe molecules are added to the photoactive polymer mixture, dispensed onto a solid support, or a mold, and covalently attached while the hydrogel is formed through UV light exposure. Such hydrogels can be synthesized with desired recognition ability through the selection of a certain nucleotide sequence. Here we show the application of DNA -based hydrogel to detect the target with high performance in fluorescence microarray format and, additionally, to fabricate holographic surface relief gratings for label-free sensing assays. This work was financially supported by the E.U. FEDER, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MINECO (ADBIHOLPID2019-110713RB-I00) and Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2020/094). M. I. Lucio acknowledges MINECO for her Juan de la Cierva Formacion and Incorporacion grants (FJCI-2016-29593, IJC 2018035355-I). Also, P. Zezza acknowledges Generalitat Valenciana for her Grisolia fellowship grant. The authors acknowledge the assistance and advice of the Electron Microscopy Service of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia. Zezza, P.; Lucío, MI.; Maquieira Catala, A.; Bañuls Polo, M. (2022). DNA -based hydrogels for high-performance optical biosensing application. Talanta. 244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.talanta.2022.123427