Practical physical aspects of interfacial nucleic acid oligomer hybridisation for biosensor design

A significant amount of research concerning rapid, selective biomolecular analysis has focused on development of analytical methods that make use of nucleic acid hybridisation as the basis for selective recognition. The development of biosensors based on nucleic acid hybridisation requires consideration of the thermodynamics of hybrid formation at a solid interface, because the relative thermodynamic stability can dictate the selectivity of hybridisation. Careful control of hybridisation conditions such as the density of oligonucleotides, as well as the temperature, pH, and ionic strength, may therefore enhance the selectivity, sensitivity and speed of a nucleic acid hybridisation assay that is located at an interface. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.