DNA Separation Using Nanoscale Organic Hybrid Materials

Nanoscale Organic Hybrid Materials (NOHMs) are a recently-developed class of materials synthesized by covalently linking a corona of organic molecules to the surface of inorganic nanoparticle cores. By varying the dimensions and the chemical character of either the corona or the core, the physicochemical properties of such systems can be readily tuned. In particular, precise control over surface charge, hydrophobicity or reactivity can be achieved through the selection of appropriate corona constituents.

For this poster presentation, I will discuss our efforts to apply these materials to effect electrophoretic biomolecular separation. Specifically, we focused on systems consisting of silica nanoparticle cores functionalized with a corona of polyethylene glycol oligomers. Compared to those from a conventional polyacrylamide (PA) gel, results obtained using a silica NOHMs-PA hybrid gel showed an enhancement in the electrophoretic mobility of DNA molecules. In order to understand the physical mechanism for the observed behavior, we evaluated the influence of additive concentration, core size, and surface charge on the electrophoretic dynamics of DNA in these systems. Overall, I will discuss the experimental results in the context of my past work on the electrophoresis of DNA as well as potential future work on applying organic-inorganic hybrid molecules for biomolecular sensing.