This Research Planning Grant project is in the broad area of materials chemistry and has significant implications for biotechnology. During the tenure of this eighteen-month standard grant, Professor Tam-Chang and her students at the University of Nevada, Reno will carry out preliminary experiments necessary to implement a major research program in biosensor technology based on molecular recognition by self-assembled monolayer-resident receptors and complementary luminescence detection. Alkanethiolate-tethered ruthenium and osmium complexes will be prepared and incorporated into self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols on gold surfaces, and their chemiluminescence and electrochemiluminescence properties characterized. Mixed SAMs in which tethered methylphosphonate oligonucleotide analogs of DNA sequences of interest are also incorporated will be prepared and the extent to which double-stranded DNA interacts with the tethered analog and alters the luminescence from the ruthenium and osmium complexes will be determined. The objective of this Research Planning Grant project is to explore the luminescence properties of SAMs containing ruthenium and osmium complexes, and to utilize that experimental platform as the basis for new sequence-specific DNA sensors. This interdisciplinary project could give rise to sensor technology with important biotechnological, environmental, and clinical applications.
