Electrical Detection of Bio-molecular Recognition Using Insulated Gate Field Effect Transistors

Abstract

A new concept of genetic field effect transistors (FET) is proposed for detection of specific binding of bio-molecules, which is in principle based on charge density change at the gate insulator. The electrical signals of the genetic FET were found to change after allele specific oligonucleotide hybridization, intercalation and primer extension. We demonstrated experimentally that the SNP genotyping could be achieved by the use of the genetic FETs in combination with allele specific extension reaction. Single base extension on the gate could be detected by the use of FET, which indicated possibility toward DNA sequencing. The genetic FET platform based on the direct transduction of oligonucleotide extension into electrical signal is suitable for a simple, accurate and inexpensive system for SNP typing in clinical diagnostics.