TECNALIA works with nanoclusters and plans the exploitation of DeDNAed
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 next interview was with the team from the TECNALIA, located in San SebastiÃĄn, Spain. We spoke with Veronica Mora Sanz, who does the wet lab work. Her works alongside colleagues Nerea Briz (exploitation, administration) and
Goran Bijelic (exploitation).
What is your role in DeDNAed?
Concerning lab work, we are working with the antibodies decorated with nanoclusters. Now we are starting to also work with nanobodies and trying to incorporate the nanoclusters inside the probes. Additionally, we are working on our chemically modified polystyrene as surface to immobilizing the DNA origami on it. This could be used in the task to transfer the platform to a flexible substrate.
Other colleagues Nerea Briz and Goran Bijelic from TECNALIA are focussing on exploitation of the project.
What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment I am working on setting up all the protocols to be performed under DNAse-free conditions. The reason is that Andreas (KSI) has seen that the samples we sent him are damaged, which may be due to DNAse. So, we are trying to solve this problem with different protocols. At the same time, I am starting to work with the nanobodies and incorporating the nanoclusters into the nanobodies probes.
For exploitation of DeDNAed a group at TECNALIA is very focused on this market plan and we recently had a meeting with someone bringing in core expertise in this area.
What have you achieved so far?
We have been able to introduce the nanoclusters inside the antibody probes. Together with Saloni Agarwal (UP) we have been able to attach the antibody to a DNA strand, which has complementary sequences to those in the DNA origami. For connecting the antibody to the strand we employed click chemistry. We are modifying our antibody with an azide group and attaching it to the DNA strand via this azide and cyclooctenes. After all these modifications the antibody still maintains its affinity to its analyte. Ultimately by doing this we can now integrate the antibody into the sensing platform via the connection of the complementary DNA strands.
Have you changed course at all?
Yes, we had planned to introduce the nanoclusters inside an antibody against Interleukin-6, but it was not possible. So we had to change the antibody and are now using a secondary antibody. We are going to try using the nanobodies applying the same procedure.
What do you expect from the final stage of the project?
At the end it would be great to have a very preliminary biosensing platform.
Working with an expert in market analysis, we will be looking for stakeholders, market competition and companies that might be interested in our research. To have more definite plans for a spin-off we will have to conduct more research and a more definite and refined platform.
Will DeDNAed have an impact in your field?
In the field of biosensors there are not many platforms using DNA origami, so DeDNAed could be one of the first projects using this approach to get a very sensitive system.
