Covalent immobilization of DNA on CVD diamond films

Abstract

Chemical vapour deposited (CVD) diamond is used in DNA immobilization experiments for its high stability and versatility. In this study a double-stranded, 250 base pairs long DNA fragment of the human PKU gene was covalently bound to CVD diamond films. Thymidine was used as a linker molecule for the binding in head-on configuration. The presence of surface-bound FITC-labelled DNA was confirmed by confocal fluorescence microscopy. In denaturation experiments the second, unlabelled strand of each pair was removed resulting in a loss of fluorescence. The possibility of non-specific binding of DNA to diamond can be excluded. (C) 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.