Silver nanocluster biosensors and fluorogenic aptamers

Among those water-soluble noble metal nanoclusters newly developed, DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (DNA/AgNCs) have attracted great interest in biosensing owing to a number of useful photophysical and photochemical properties. Controlled conversion of DNA/AgNCs between bright and dark states by guanine proximity has led to the invention of a new molecular probe, termed a NanoCluster Beacon (NCB), that “lights up” upon binding with a DNA target. We hold 3 US patents on the silver nanocluster probes (10407715, 9499866, 8476014) and are currently collaborating with Dr. Jennifer Brodbelt in UT Chemisty and Dr. Minjun Kim at SMU in using mass spectrometry and nanopores to study DNA/AgNCs. More details can be foud in Obliosca et al., ACS Nano, 2014; Chen et al., JACS, 2015; Blevins et al., ACS Nano, 2019; Kuo et al., Adv. Materials, 2022. We are currently using deep learning models to predictively design silver nanocluster sensors with desired colors, on/off ratios and photostabilities.