Specificity to various DNA sequences is conferred to the dendrimers by hybridizing and covalently crosslinking oligonucleotides to the single-stranded surface of the dendrimers. Polyprobe is currently investigating applications of the dendrimer in dot, southern, northern, and western blots, flourescent in-situ hybridization (FISH), and flow flourescence assays.

DNA dendrimers have been prepared with specificity to many DNA sequences, including HIV1 LTR, B2-microglobulin, FSHr (follicle-stimulating hormone receptor), and XRCC4 (X-ray repair). Dendrimers have been labelled using ³²P, biotin, digoxigenin, as well as several flourescent molecules. ³²P-labelled dendrimers can detect less than 40 fg (femtograms) of target after an overnight exposure on a dot blot, as compared to 5 pg (picograms) with similarly labelled oligonucleotides. This data represents greater than 100 fold signal enhancement.

If you are interested in using Polyprobe dendrimers in your lab, please contact us by phone, mail, fax, or e-mail (info@genisphere.com) us. Please include a name, address, phone number, a short summary of your research, and any pertinent specificity sequences (30 bp or longer) with all communications. We look forward to setting up an arrangement with you.