9:45 AM - SB06.09.04
RNA Biomolecular Electronics for Biophysics and Biosensors
Juan Artes Vivancos1,Keshani Pattiya Arachchillage1,Subrata Chandra1
University of Massachusetts-Lowell1
Show Abstract
Materials science in general, and nanoscience and nanotechnology, in particular, have promised multiple applications enabled by an unprecedented control of matter. One of them is the ultimate miniaturization of electronic components and circuits to the scale of individual molecules. This exciting field is known as Molecular Electronics1. Shortly after
opening the door for reliable single-molecule conductance measurements2, biomolecules were also considered as the subject of these studies3. The field of biomolecular electronics has experienced a boom in the last decades. Not only the developments in microscopy have allowed researchers to study biological details of fundamental processes with a high spatial and temporal resolution4, but nanoscience tools such as Scanning Probe Microscopies have led to biophysical studies at the single-molecule level. Notably, Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM)5 has enabled researchers to perform single-molecule electronic studies of biomolecules3, including nucleic acids6, redox proteins7, and more complex biosystems8.
In this contribution, we show examples of the new biomolecular electronics projects in our lab (http://faculty.uml.edu/artes), where we integrate classical nanotechnology methods from materials science and characterization for the study of different
biological systems:
#The analysis of the biomolecular interactions at the RNA Induced Silencing Complex.
#The single-molecule electrical detection of circulating tumor nucleic acids to study cancer biomarkers and the early diagnostics through liquid biopsy.
We are currently obtaining preliminary results on the charge transport through double-stranded9 and single-stranded RNA oligonucleotides10, showing that these single-biomolecule electrical fingerprints contain important biophysical information. These methods and results could be applied to numerous biological problems, paving the way to a whole new body of biophysics and materials science knowledge. In particular, electrical signals have demonstrated helpful in detecting RNA. This, combined with new results from biomolecular interactions, could allow a complete molecular understanding of how regulatory RNA elements work. Also, this knowledge could pave the way for the design of next-generation single-molecule nanobiosensors11 for biomedicine and public health monitoring.
REFERENCES
1. Molecular rectifiers. A Aviram, MA Ratner. Chemical physics letters, 1974
2. Measurement of single-molecule resistance by repeated formation of molecular junctions. B Xu, NJ Tao. Science, 2003
3. RNA BioMolecular Electronics: towards new tools for biophysics and biomedicine. Arachchillage KG, Chandra S, Piso A, Qattan T, Artes Vivancos JM. Journal of Materials Chemistry B, 2021
4. Single-molecule spectroscopy, imaging, and photocontrol: foundations for super-resolution microscopy. WE Moerner. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2015
5. Scanning tunneling microscopy. G Binnig, H Rohrer. Surface Science, 1983
6. Direct conductance measurement of single DNA molecules in aqueous solution. B Xu, P Zhang, X Li, NJ Tao. Nano letters, 2004
7. Transistor-like behavior of single metalloprotein junctions. JM Artés Vivancos, I Díez-Pérez, P Gorostiza. Nano letters, 2012
8. Probing Bioelectronic Connections Using Streptavidin Molecules with Modified Valency. B Zhang, E Ryan, X Wang, S Lindsay. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2021
9. Single-molecule conductance of double-stranded RNA oligonucleotides.S Chandra, KGGP Arachchillage, E Kliuchnikov, F Maksudov, S Ayoub,V Barsegov, and JM Artes Vivancos. Nanoscale. In revision
10. Charge-transport through pi-stacked bases in single-stranded RNA. S Chandra, KGGP Arachchillage, E Kliuchnikov, F Maksudov, V Barsegov, and JM Artes Vivancos. In preparation
11. Detection and identification of genetic material via single-molecule conductance. Li, Y., Artés Vivancos, J.M., Demir, B., Gokce, S., Mohammad, H.M., Alangari, M., Anantram, M.P., Oren, E.E. and J Hihath. Nat Nano. 2018