Gold nanoparticles as novel label for DNA diagnostics

The growing interest in DNA diagnostics, especially in combination with the need for highly-paralleled and miniaturized hybridization assays, is today addressed by fluorescence DNA chips. Fluorescence detection is approved and highly developed, however, it has also problematic aspects, e.g., the low stability of the dyes, the influence of the physicochemical environment onto the signal intensity and the expensive set-up for detection. A novel detection scheme based on metal nanoparticles was proposed to overcome these problems and is discussed in this review.