With high-tech optical tools and sophisticated mathematics, Rice University researchers have found a way to pinpoint the location of specific sequences along single strands of DNA, a technique that could someday help diagnose genetic diseases.
Proof-of-concept experiments in the Rice lab of chemist Christy Landes identified DNA sequences as short as 50 nucleotides at room temperature, a feat she said is impossible with standard microscopes that cannot see targets that small, or electron microscopes that require targets to be in a vacuum or cryogenically frozen.
The technique called “super-localization microscopy” has been known for a while, Landes said, but its application in biosensing is just beginning.
Read the full, original story here: Scientists use blur to sharpen nanoscale DNA mapping
