Functional DNA sensors for waterborne diseases in enviromental monitoring and medical diagnostics

ANA SOL PEINETTI; YI LU

Pheonix, Arizona

Conferencia; PEW Annual Meeting in Biomedical Science; 2018

The PEW Charitable Trusts

Dengue virus is the most widespread arbovirus. Endemic in the tropical and subtropical areas of the world, dengue infection is emerging as a major public health concern. The identification of patients at high risk for developing severe disease forms is still a great challenge in dengue patient care. Particularly, simple, inexpensive and easy-to-use technologies for point of care (POC) diagnostic test are needed, mainly in resource-limited areas where this disease developed.We propose that the metabolic changes associated with early stages of severe dengue forms allow the development of a POC test using the advantages of aptamers for sensing small molecules that act as biomarkers.The overall project will be performed in two fundamental parts and a third applied part. The first part involves the design of aptamers for dengue specific biomarkers detection by a molecular biology technique and, also, the understanding of its structure-function relationship, in a laboratory with a vast experience in this area. The second part consists in develop a POC test to detect biomarkers, coupling aptamers to useful signal readouts which involve couple this oligonucleotides with nanomaterials. In the third part, the findings from the fundamental studies will be applied to develop realistic diagnostic test, working with clinical human samples.