DIAMOND isn’t just strong, it’s also DNA-friendly, which makes it the ideal material for researchers trying to stick DNA molecules onto silicon chips.
These biochips are used as sensors to pick up particular DNA sequences, to monitor gene activity for example, or identify a particular bug.
To figure out the best material, Robert Hamers of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues attached DNAmolecules to films of gold, silicon, glass and diamond. Then they tested the films by repeatedly binding and removing strands of complementary DNA. “Diamond is the only one that holds up under these conditions,” says Hamers. The…
