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Updated: May 29, 2025

A Method for Selecting Structure-switching Aptamers Applied to a Colorimetric Gold Nanoparticle Assay
Published on: February 28, 2015
Quantifying metabolites using structure-switching aptamers coupled to DNA sequencing
1The Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract:
Here we report a method, smol-seq (small-molecule sequencing), using structure-switching aptamers (SSAs) and DNA sequencing to quantify metabolites. In smol-seq, each SSA detects a single target molecule and releases a unique DNA barcode on target binding. Sequencing the released barcodes can, thus, read out metabolite levels. We show that SSAs are highly specific and can be multiplexed to detect multiple targets in parallel, bringing the power of DNA sequencing to metabolomics.
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