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Aptamer-based molecular recognition for biosensor development

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Abstract

Nucleic acid aptamers are an emerging class of synthetic ligands and have recently attracted significant attention in numerous fields. One is in biosensor development. In principle, nucleic acid aptamers can be discovered to recognize any molecule of interest with high affinity and specificity. In addition, unlike most ligands evolved in nature, synthetic nucleic acid aptamers are usually tolerant of harsh chemical, physical, and biological conditions. These distinguished characteristics make aptamers attractive molecular recognition ligands for biosensing applications. This review first concisely introduces methods for aptamer discovery including upstream selection and downstream truncation, then discusses aptamer-based biosensor development from the viewpoint of signal production.

Aptamer-based molecular recognition for analyte detection.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported in part by grants from the US National Science Foundation (DMR-0705716) and the UConn Research Foundation.

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  1. Department of Chemical, Materials and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Connecticut, 191 Auditorium Road, Storrs, CT, 06269-3222, USA

    Jing Zhou, Mark R. Battig & Yong Wang

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  1. Jing Zhou
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  2. Mark R. Battig
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  3. Yong Wang
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Correspondence to Yong Wang.

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Published in the special issue on Focus on Bioanalysis with Guest Editors Antje J. Baeumner, Günter Gauglitz and Frieder W. Scheller.

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Zhou, J., Battig, M.R. & Wang, Y. Aptamer-based molecular recognition for biosensor development. Anal Bioanal Chem 398, 2471–2480 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-010-3987-y

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