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Open Access Research article

Label-free electrical quantification of the dielectrophoretic response of DNA

Anja Henning, Jörg Henkel, Frank F Bier and Ralph Hölzel*

Author Affiliations

Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering, Am Mühlenberg 13, 14476 Potsdam-Golm, Germany


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PMC Biophysics 2008, 1:4 doi:10.1186/1757-5036-1-4

Published: 5 November 2008

Abstract

A purely electrical sensing scheme is presented that determines the concentration of macromolecules in solution by measuring the capacitance between planar microelectrodes. Concentrations of DNA in the ng/mL range have been used in samples of 1 μL volume. The method has been applied to the characterisation of the dielectrophoretic response of DNA without the need for any chemical modifications. The influence of electrical parameters like duty cycle, voltage and frequency has been investigated. The results are in good agreement with data from dielectrophoretic studies on fluorescently labelled DNA. Extension of the method down to the single molecule level appears feasible.

PACS: 87.50.ch, 87.80.Fe, 87.85.fK