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MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
EECS Event |
Thursday, February 1, 2001
4:00 PM (refreshments 3:45)
Room 35-225
Special Seminar
Abstract
Given the central role of DNA in biology, its physical properties are of great interest. Recently, we have started to explore the electrical properties of DNA by adapting techniques familiar to the physics and engineering world. Two of these are capacitance and conductance measurements, often used for probing the electronic properties of semiconducting and superconducting devices.
In this talk, I will show how we are able to use capacitance measurements to detect and quantify the DNA content of single eukaryotic cells which flow through an integrated microfluidic chip. By measuring a variety of cells from different organisms, ranging from yeast to mammals, we have discovered a linear relationship between the DNA content of eukaryotic cells and capacitance. While the exact origin of this linear relationship is still unknown, it does appear to be related to the conductivity of DNA. In this regard, I will also show how we have directly measured the conductivity of a single molecule of DNA and have in fact fabricated and characterized a single-molecule DNA transistor.