Abstract

The idea of merging biological and non-biological systems is not new - in fact the long established field of bioconjugate chemistry is based upon the covalent attachment of biomolecules and non-biologically derived molecular species. The self-assembly of these bioconjugates provides a robust approach for the highly sensitive detection of low copy numbers of biomolecules, an example of such an assay are ELISA methods. Utilisation of nanobiocongugates for bioanalytical applications should be advantageous for biosensing applications where a physical property of the nanomaterial is exploited to provide an enhanced detection capability. Our main motivation is to create new bioanalytical tools integrated within photonic and MEMS platforms. These technologies are being developed for bioassays not currently possible by using other approaches and include methods for the analysis of long DNA fragments in low copy number; in the development of these approaches we have provided new self-assembly nanobiomaterial fabrication methods. These will be discussed in the context or our overall aims.