Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 10
Synthetic Polymers for Electrochemical
DNA Biosensors
Adriana Ferancov a
a
and Katarına Benıkov a
b
a
ProcessChemistryCentre,LaboratoryofAnalyticalChemistry, AboAkademiUniversity,
FI-20500Turku-Abo, Finland
b
Instituteof Analytical Chemistry, Slovak University of Technology inBratislava,
81237Bratislava, Slovakia
adriana.ferancova@abo.fi; altair155@gmail.com; katarina.benikova@stuba.sk
10.1 Introduction
In recent years, electrochemical DNA biosensors have been widely
used for many purposes, such as study of DNA hybridization as
well as investigation of interactions of DNA with other molecules,
including DNA association with low-molecular-weight compounds
or detection of damage to DNA. To make DNA biosensors powerful,
there is an increased interest in the use of different materials
which can be applied as the DNA-transducer interface. Among
them, conducting as well as nonconducting polymers have become
more and more popular. They offer an environment suitable for
direct simple adsorption of the DNA onto the polymeric matrix or
incorporation of the DNA into the polymeric network. Polymers
can also be mixed with the nanomaterials to form nanocomposites
providingmanynewinterestingproperties,includingrapidelectron
