New electrostatic-based DNA microarray technique could revolutionize medical diagnostics
DNA microarrays can be easily interrogated with only the naked eye using a new electrostatic imaging technique developed in the laboratory of Jay Groves, a chemist with Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley and HHMI. Credit: Photo Michael Barnes, UC Berkeley Chemistry Department The dream of personalized medicine — in which diagnostics, risk predictions and treatment decisions are based on a patient's genetic profile — may be on the verge of being expanded beyond the wealthiest of nations with state-of-the-art clinics. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) has invented a technique in which DNA or RNA assays — the key to genetic profiling and disease detection — can be read and evaluated without the need of elaborate chemical labeling or sophisticated instrumentation. Based on electrostatic repulsion — in which objects with the same electrical charge repel one another — the technique is relatively simple and inexpensive to implement, and can be carried out in a matter of minutes.