Assays
using probes labeled with optical or color moieties are extremely powerful
analytical tools due to their high sensitivity or simplicity. Recently, we have
developed some optical and color based probes for gene-sensing. Specifically, for
optical strategies, electrochemiluminescence based on tris(2,2-bipyridyl) ruthenium(II)
(Ru(bpy)32+) with tripropylamine (TPrA) as the
co-reactant has been developed to combine a microfluidic system with a
paramagnetic microbead solid support; For color based strategies, nucleic acids
labeled gold nanoparticle probes are applied on the bioactive paper-based platform
to perform a visual test using sandwich hybridization assays. The test results
can be directly visualized by the naked eye for qualitative observation or by
semi-quantitative spectral detection within minutes. Combing with high efficiency
gene amplification, both optical and color based probes techniques shown great
potential on nucleic acids analysis, which can be applied to the fields such as
medical diagnostics, environmental analysis and food safety monitoring.