An electrochemical DNA-switch (red ribbon) detects its target antibody (green) directly in blood. Credit: Peter Allen

Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have designed inexpensive medical diagnostic tests based on their observations of nature’s ubiquitous nanoscale sensing mechanisms. The new tests have the potential to make a big impact on global health by providing rapid on-site diagnostic results for allergies, autoimmune diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, and more. According to a press release from UCSB:

The key breakthrough underlying this new technology came from observing nature. ‘All creatures, from bacteria to humans, monitor their environments using amazing ‘molecular nanoswitches’ that signal the presence of a specific target by changing their structure,” said Alexis Vallée-Bélisle, a postdoctoral scholar and co-first author of the study. “For example, on the surface of our cells, there are millions of receptor proteins that detect various molecules by switching from an ‘off state’ to an ‘on state.’ The beauty of these switches is that they are able to work directly in very complex environments such as whole blood.

The design was created by the UCSB research group of Professor Kevin W. Plaxco and described in the September issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Plaxco’s group collaborated with Professor Francesco Ricci at University of Rome  to build synthetic molecular switches. A change in electric current signals a state change in the switch, and the change in current can then be measured using simple electronics, much like those used for home glucose monitoring.