Design and fabrication of DNA-based nanobiosensors for early diagnosis of genetic diseases

Rapid and reliable diagnosis and screening of genetic diseases are the first steps to initiate appropriate treatments for optimal clinical outcomes and general public health. However, detection of diseases at an early stage either prenatal or postnatal especially by a noninvasive approach is one of the biggest challenges in medicine. There is a various range of biomarkers for diagnosis and screening, including Proteins, DNA polymorphisms (especially SNPs), MicroRNAs, Long Non-coding RNAs, Circular RNAs, and Circulating Fetal DNA. Different disciplines of science are working together for providing effective, noninvasive and reliable detection methods. Conventional diagnostics are time-consuming and require equipped laboratories, experienced personnel. Recently, Nano-based detections have provided more accurate tools for earlier, fast and cost-effective diagnosis of human diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, neurodegenerative diseases, chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes and cardiovascular diseases), immunodeficiency and even prenatal screening of fetus for sex determination and genetic diseases such Sickle cell anemia (SCA) and Thalassemia that have high healthcare costs. Nucleic acid-based detection of genetic provides more flexibility compared to other biomolecules, as they are present in all living organisms. The DNA-based nanobiosensors can be used effectively to simplify DNA/RNA detection for point-of-care testing and provide simple, fast, cost-effective, sensitive and specific detection of many genetic disorders in humans. Different approaches are being developed for detection, namely optical, electrochemical, piezoelectrical, and recently, microfluidic platform based methods. This presentation describes new strategies and future directions for the design, fabrication, and applications of different types of DNA based biosensors in clinical laboratories with an emphasis on our group recent researches and publications in this field.