How Gold Particles, DNA and Water Have the Potential to Shape the Future of Medicine

A diagnostic 'cocktail,' containing a single drop of blood, a dribble of water and a dose of DNA powder with gold particles, could one day lead to the treatment of the world's leading diseases. This homegrown brew is being developed by IBBME PhD student Kyryl Zagorovsky and Professor Warren Chan (IBBME), a Canada Research Chair in Nanobiotechnology.

Professor Chan's lab studies nanoparticles -- in particular, the use of gold particles in sizes so small that they are measured in the nanoscale. He and his group are working on custom-designing nanoparticles to target and illuminate cancer cells and tumours, with the potential of one day being able to deliver drugs to cancer cells.

Zagorovsky's rapid-diagnostic biosensor will allow technicians to test for multiple diseases at one time with one small sample, and with high accuracy and sensitivity. "Gold is the best medium," explained Professor Chan, "because it's easy to see. It emits a very intense colour."

Currently, scientists can target a particular disease by linking gold particles with DNA strands. When a sample containing the disease gene (e.g., Malaria) is present, it clumps the gold particles, turning the sample blue. Rather than clumping the particles together, Zagorovsky immerses the gold particles in a DNA-based enzyme solution (DNA-zyme) that, when the disease gene is introduced, 'snip' the DNA from the gold particles, turning the sample red.