Researchers create DNA-based nanosensors

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 15 (UPI) -- University of Pennsylvania and Monell Chemical Sciences Center researchers say they've created DNA-based nanosensors that can detect odors and tastes.

The researchers said arrays of nanosensors could detect molecules on the order of one part per million, akin to finding a one-second play amid 278 hours of baseball footage or a single person in Times Square on New Year's Eve.

In their study, the researchers tested the nanosensors on five different chemical odorants, including methanol and dinitrotoluene, or DNT -- a chemical that's frequently a component of military-grade explosives.

The nanosensors could sniff molecules in the air or taste them in a liquid, suggesting applications ranging from domestic security to medical detectors.

"What we have here is a hybrid of two molecules that are extremely sensitive to outside signals: single stranded DNA, which serves as the 'detector,' and a carbon nanotube, which functions as 'transmitter,'" said A. T. Charlie Johnson, associate professor in Penn's Department of Physics and Astronomy. "Put the two together and they become an extremely versatile type of sensor, capable of finding tiny amounts of a specific molecule."

The research appears in the current issue of the journal Nano Letters.