Quantum Material-Based Self-Propelled Microrobots for the Optical "On-the-Fly" Monitoring of DNA

Quantum dot-based materials have been found to be excellent platforms for biosensing and bioimaging applications. Herein, self-propelled microrobots made of graphene quantum dots (GQD-MRs) have been synthesized and explored as unconventional dynamic biocarriers toward the optical "on-the-fly" monitoring of DNA. As a first demonstration of applicability, GQD-MRs have been first biofunctionalized with a DNA biomarker (i.e., fluorescein amidite-labeled, FAM-L) via hydrophobic pi-stacking interactions and subsequently exposed toward different concentrations of a DNA target. The biomarker-target hybridization process leads to a biomarker release from the GQD-MR surface, resulting in a linear alteration in the fluorescence intensity of the dynamic biocarrier at the nM range (1-100 nM, R-2 = 0.99), also demonstrating excellent selectivity and sensitivity, with a detection limit as low as 0.05 nM. Consequently, the developed dynamic biocarriers, which combine the appealing features of GQDs (e.g., water solubility, fluorescent activity, and supramolecular pi-stacking interactions) with the autonomous mobility of MRs, present themselves as potential autonomous micromachines to be exploited as highly efficient and sensitive "on-the-fly" biosensing systems. This method is general and can be simply customized by tailoring the biomarker anchored to the GQD-MR's surface.

Keywords

microrockets, fluorescence, self-propelledmicromotors, DNA biosensor, FRET

Citation

ACS applied materials & interfaces. 2023, vol. 15, issue 50, p. 58548-58555.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsami.3c09920

Document type

Peer-reviewed

Document version

Published version

Language of document

en

Document licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/