ASU Researchers “Wire” DNA To Identify Mutations

A team of ASU researchers led by Nongjian Tao and Peiming Zhang has developed a new, breakthrough technique for the detection of DNA mutations.Their results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrate for the first time, the possibility of directly identifying these mutations, or single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), by means of measuring the electrical conductance of a single DNA molecule. SNPs are buried in the 3 billion DNA bases of the human genome. On average, SNPs occur about once in every 1,000 DNA bases, though not every SNP found will necessarily cause a disease mutation. Cataloging these subtle DNA differences among the populace will aid the ongoing quest to understand and prevent disease.

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