Deoxyribonucleic acid hybridization acceleration by photovoltaic effect

In this study, the authors show a method of enhancing the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) hybridization efficiency by exploiting the photovoltaic effect. The arrayed microchip is fabricated in a semiconductor wafer coated with metal thin films to immobilize the probe DNA. Hybridization between immobilized probe DNAs and fluorescent-labeled target DNA is performed under illumination by a laser. The photovoltaic effect induces positive charges on the surface of the microchip to attract negatively charged target DNAs toward the hybridization sites, increasing the hybridization rate by up to two orders of magnitude. The experimental results reveal that the method represents a cutting-edge solution to the problem of the time consuming microchip process. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.