Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 22, 2025
Optical Detection of E. coli Bacteria by Mesoporous Silicon Biosensors
Published on: November 20, 2013
Polymerization-Amplified Optical DNA Detection on Porous Silicon Templates
Dirk Holthausen1, Roshan B Vasani2, Steven J P McInnes2
1School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, South Australia 5042, Australia.
Abstract:
A porous silicon-based optical DNA sensor is described herein, which enables rapid DNA detection. The DNA sensor relies on the specificity of the DNA base pairing in conjunction with an interferometric optical signal amplification step based on polymer formation within the porous silicon layer to detect the DNA targets in a highly selective fashion. We demonstrate that it is possible to discriminate between DNA strands exhibiting even a single nucleotide mismatch using this sensor.
