Low-cost, High-throughput, Gene Synthesis and Biosensor Arrays from CMOS Microarray Produced Oligonucleotides
Abstract
Abstract: Increasingly, the incredible synthetic and functional capabilities of biological systems are seen as a means to develop technologies to produce novel materials, therapeutics, sensing capabilities, and even biologically?based manufacturing platforms. These biology?based technologies have the potential to revolutionize current materials and manufacturing paradigms in service to the DoD and the nation. A characteristic making biology an attractive platform for engineering is the precision control biological systems exert over the biosynthetic capabilities encoded in their DNA. Due to its central role in encoding information in biology, the manipulation and synthesis of DNA is collectively one of the chief technologies in the augmentation of biological systems. Unlike Next?Generation sequencing technologies which have led to a rapid decrease in the cost of sequencing, technologies available for DNA synthesis have not followed suit due to the inherent reagent costs associated with synthesis. Recent work in the use of oligonucleotides synthesized on DNA microarrays for synthesis of large DNA sequences may overcoming this cost limitation due to their extremely low reagent usage. This technology’s penetration for gene synthesis, however, remains somewhat limited. As with NextGen sequencing technologies, as the cost of usage decreased the applications based on it increased. A similar trend would be seen for DNA synthesis with the availability of inexpensive synthetic DNA and the people trained to use it. To expand the existing gene synthesis capabilities available to researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and to support current research efforts funded by the Department of Defense by supplying low?cost microarray produced synthetic DNA, ARL:UT requests the funds to purchase a CMOS?microarray oligonucleotide synthesizer. This versatile instrument will allow ARL:UT to contribute to the development of tools, techniques, and applications, for the low?cost synthesis of DNA.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Aug 12, 2016
- Source ID
- N000141512825
Entities
People
- Randall A. Hughes
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Texas at Austin