IMMM characterizes nanoparticles using SERS
What’s going on with DeDNAed? We are catching up with our project partners to see what they have achieved, what hurdles they are facing and what impact they expect our project, creating a biosensing platform using DNA origami as a “nano-breadboard”, to have on the scientific community.
Our second interview was with the team from the Institute of Molecules and Materials of Le Mans (IMMM), located at the University of Le Mans, France. Marc Lamy De La Chapelle leads the team, with Mathieu Edely, Frederic Amiard, Aicha Azziz and Qiqian Liu contributing.
What is your role in DeDNAed?
Our role in DeDNAed is to characterize the nanoparticles that will be grafted on the DNA origami to determine the characteristics and properties of these nanoparticles to be able to perform sensing using surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). At the end if everything is working, we will determine the performance of the sensing using the DNA origami systems.
What are you working on at the moment?
We just received some origami samples from the joint experiments in Potsdam back in November and we are doing measurements on these samples to determine if we are able to observe the origami with the nanoparticles and if we can extract any signal.
In addition, we are working on the interaction and hybridization between the DNA strands. We do this to understand the SERS spectra that we obtain from the DNA origami. We want to determine whether a specific signal or spectral marker is induced by the interaction of several DNA strands of the DNA origami. Concerning the origami hybrids, we are looking for whether or not there is a preferential binding on the substrate.
What have you achieved so far?
We have been able to characterize the DNA strand on the surface of gold nanoparticles. We get some specific signal and specific spectral marker for the DNA strand.
We have also achieved some detection. Using SERS we have detected aflatoxin and interleukin-6. We have some results on this â not using DNA origami, however, but using SERS.
Additionally, we recently were able to determine which spectra correspond to the effective observation of DNA origami. So in brief we now have a specific marker of the origami.
Have you changed course at all?
In fact, we had some delay especially for the origami because it was difficult to be sure that we could observe the origami on the surface. Due to its small size, it is very difficult to detect it visually. It took a long time just to get some samples in which we were sure there was origami. Once we did, we were able to correlate the SERS signal with the origami.
What do you expect from the final stage of the project?
So far we have characterized the sensor platform to be able to provide a proof of concept. Now we want to go a step further and introduce the analyte to test whether we can detect it or not. We expect to receive new samples of the system from partners to perform final measurements.
Will DeDNAed have an impact in your field?
Yes, our work will have an impact. We have gotten some results using the origami which are interesting. It is not very common to perform experiments in our field (SERS and Raman spectroscopy applied to sensing) with origami. In addition, we are characterizing DNA using SERS, providing new results that are interesting in the field, especially hybridization between DNA strands.
