Nucleic Acid-Based Sensors
A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Biosensors".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 September 2023) | Viewed by 2225
Special Issue Editors
Interests: nucleic acid structure; gene transcription; chromatin structure; gene editing; cancer therapy
Interests: nucleic acid binder; repeat expansion sequence; chemical sequencing
Interests: DNA modifications; epigenetics; nucleic acid chemistry; DNA sequencing; DNA probe; cancer
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Beyond serving as genetic materials shared by all living organisms on earth, nucleic acids have been widely explored in analytical applications by virtue of their extraordinary chemical and physical properties, such as biocompatibility, programmability, easy to modify, chemically stable in the absence of nuclease, synthetic feasibility, and cost-effectiveness.
The unique feature of nucleic acids is that binding to their complementary strands allows for the development of nucleic acid-based signal amplification technologies, such as non-enzymatic nucleic acid amplifiers (e.g., complex entropy-driven catalysis, catalytic hairpin assembly reactions, and hybridization chain reactions) and enzymatic nucleic acid amplifiers (e.g., PCR, LAMP). Taking advantage of PCR amplification and next-generation sequencing, the systematic evolution of ligands by exponential enrichment (in vitro nucleic acid evolution methods such as SELEX) has made available functional nucleic acids including aptamers and nucleic acid enzymes (DNAzyme, ribozyme). The nucleic acid modification methods have brought in a secondary revolution that greatly expanded the capabilities of functional nucleic acids, including enhancing stability, nucleic acid analogues (PNA, SNA), and versatile modulation (photo-control and spatial control). Virus DNA detection during the recent COVID-19 pandemic hugely boosted the application of nucleic acid-based diagnoses. By conjugating nucleic acids with other functional modalities such as nanoparticles, florescent probes, proteins and microfluidic chips, the application scope of nucleic acids became more broad. The versatility of nucleic acids renders them extraordinary materials for making sensing and diagnosis systems and devices.
This Special Issue, therefore, aims to put together original research and review articles on recent advances in technologies, solutions, applications, and new challenges in the field of nucleic acid-based sensing systems.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to:
- Nucleic acid-based sensors;
- Nucleic acid-based imaging;
- Nucleic acid-based target detection;
- Nucleic acid-based target quantification;
- Nucleic acid-based diagnosis;
- Nucleic acid-based therapy;
- Nucleic acid-based theranostics.
Dr. Yuqi Chen
Dr. Zutao Yu
Dr. Chaoxing Liu
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- catalytic and non-catalytic functional nucleic acids (e.g., DNAzyme, ribozyme, aptamer and antisense oligonucleotides)
- modified nucleic acids (e.g., PNA, LNA and SNA)
- secondary nucleic acid structure (e.g., G-quadruplex, i-motif and triplex)
- nucleic acid signal amplification
- fluorescent sensor
- biosensing and bioimaging
- targeted imaging and therapy
- nucleic acid-based disease diagnosis (for virus, e.g., COVID-19, monkeypox, SARS and cancer)
- DNA nanotechnology
- CRISPR-Cas
- DNA-antibody conjugates
- lab-on-a-chip
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