DURHAM, N.C. -- A team of scientists at Duke University Medical Center has used a component of the "nose" of common bacteria to create a genetically-engineered protein biosensor that can identify the presence of a particular chemical in its surroundings.
The group's prototype biosensor can detect the presence of maltose, a sugar compound, in blood, and can switch on a molecule that produces fluorescent light to signal its catch. With further modifications, the researchers believe an array of biosensors can be created to instantly sample a wide variety of "target" molecules, from hormones in blood to pollutants in river water.
Based on the work, published in the April 29 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, primary author Homme Hellinga predicts the first useful application will be a portable "bedside laboratory" that physicians can use to receive on-the-spot analysis of a patient's blood. Such a kit would reduce the time and expense of sending samples out for laboratory analysis, and would help doctors in diagnosing particular disorders and in precisely regulating medications used during cancer chemotherapy or other complexes diseases.
The study was funded by the Whitaker Foundation, which awarded Hellinga a three-year Whitaker Fellow grant. Hellinga is an assistant professor of biochemistry at the medical center. Working with him on the study were graduate students Jonathan Marvin and Ethan Corcoran, undergraduate student Neil Hattangadi, and technical assistants Jian Zhang and Sheryl Gere.
The idea of exploiting proteins to use as molecular diagnostic devices
has been around for a long time, and has been used successfully in a few
instances, such as measuring blood glucose for the management of diabetes.
The secret in creating such devices lies in finding a way to have the protein
"signal" that it has recognized the molecule of interest. But
engineers have had to rely on happenstan
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Contact: Renee Twombly
twomb001@mc.duke.edu
919-660-1313
Duke University
30-Apr-1997