Rapid and sensitive detection of biological pathogens in the environment is an essential capability in many areas, including basic research, health care, environmental monitoring, and homeland defense. This detection is often done through molecular diagnostics, but current technology limits the capability of identifying the appropriate agents present in a sample in a fast and sensitive manner. The Stanford Genome technology Center has developed and performed preliminary experiments with a new method for detecting and identifying nucleic acid based targets at extremely low concentrations. This method, Charge-Perturbation Signature (CPS), is a highly sensitive, specific and rapid method for detecting the presence of a specific sequence of DNA. Sensitivity is in the low femtomol range, which suggests no need for PCR amplification. In this project, Stanford will further develop and improve CPS and demonstrate its application to pathogen DNA detection in a proof-of-principle experiment.
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