Abstract
Biosensing techniques are crucially important in a wide variety of applications from the detection of biological warfare agents to analysis for pesticide residues in crops or determination of freshness of food products. The intense search for better and more accurate biosensors has recently drawn attention to polyamidoamine (PAMAM) dendrimers. The unique properties of globular PAMAM dendrimers, with large numbers of exo-presented functional end-groups, provide a very promising platform for biological sensor elements. Polydiacetylene (PDA), on the other hand, is a macromolecule that exhibits a colorimetric response to a variety of stimuli, and is therefore a strong candidate for sensor elements. Consequently, an ensemble of PAMAM dendrimers and PDA segments provides for a novel type of molecular biosensor, which is expected to have highly pronounced sensitivity and widely applicable versatility. In this article, an overview of recent experimental work and progress achieved on biosensors from PAMAM dendrimers and PDAs is presented.
Notes
27. Starburst® Dendrimer, Technology Review, Dendritech, Inc., 1995