2018 REU Student Profile
I am currently working in Dr. Ryan White’s lab, and I fabricate electrochemical aptamer-based sensors (E-ABs) on Au electrodes for the detection of various targets. Typically, E-ABs are fabricated using a method called self-assembled monolayers, which uses a gold-thiol bond for the immobilization of our aptamers. My project deals with developing a novel surface chemistry approach for the immobilization of DNA to fabricate E-ABs on gold electrodes because the gold-thiol bond is susceptible to desorption when exposed to temperature changes or air-drying. The purpose of my project is to improve the stability of the E-ABs using diazonium salt grafting, which allows for covalent bonding onto the gold electrode surface. The improved stability could potentially allow for E-ABs to be used in point-of-care (POC) applications, which would otherwise not be possible with the less stable gold-thiol bond.
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