Signal enhancement in DNA microarray using dye doped silica nanoparticles: Application to Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) detection

DNA microarray is a powerful tool for the parallel of nucleic acids and other biologically significant molecules. In this communication we report an easy and cheap synthesis route for incorporating organic dyes into monodisperse inorganic silica nanoparticles and their application on the detection of carcinogenic risky Human Papilloma Virus using DNA microarray technology. We correlate our system with conventional direct dyes and commercial quantum dots, with a promising increase in optical signal, and a related decrease of the limit of detection, thus giving a remarkable improvement in this technique towards early diagnosis of diseases and trace level detection of dangerous biological contaminants. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.