Real-time DNA recognition

Photo: privat Irene Fernandez-Cuesta - Dr. Irene Fernandez-Cuesta from the Department of Physics at Universität Hamburg and her team have received a grant of 150 000 euros from the European Research Council. The goal is to further develop nanodevices to be used for liquid biopsy, enabling faster and less invasive monitoring of many diseases such as cancer. The method developed by the researchers is called "Laser-Assisted DNA Optical Mapping (LADOM)" and can detect DNA molecules from a sample in real time. It requires less than a microliter of fluid, is fast and easy to interpret, and can detect very small DNA fragments. "With proof of concept funding from the European Research Council, we will now work towards offering a service to analyze samples from our research partners at the biomedical field, for example from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf using LADOM to standardize the technology. This will help us to build relationships with potential stakeholders and to be able to tailor the most requested applications for our method, which will be the first to market," says Dr. Irene Fernandez-Cuesta. "In addition, we will develop software to automate the data analysis to increase the throughput of the tests." Liquid biopsy is a method for monitoring cancer, which does not require tissue to be removed from the affected organ.