Aptanostic & Biosensor Research

Aptanostics is a new term coined, derived from the word aptamer and diagnostics. Nucleic acid aptamers have attracted significant attention in the field of clinical diagnosis due to numerous merits, such as high affinity, high specificity, smaller in size, non-immunogenicity, stable structures, and ease of synthesis. Aptamer is a short synthetic oligonucleotide, DNA/RNA that can be generated by in-vitro selection procedures and binds to a wide variety of targets ranging from small molecules such as drug, amino acids, metal ions, proteins, toxins and whole cells. Thus aptamers can be considered as universal receptors that rival antibodies in diagnostics as a tool of molecular recognition. The capabilities exhibited by aptamer far supersede that of antibodies which have also made remarkable impact on a wide range of applications. In collaboration with Dr. Subash Gopinath from National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan, the aptanostic laboratory is newbie in Malaysia, using cutting edge technology, creating a frontier that focusing on the medical applications of aptamer. The aptanostics and biosensor group harness the aptamer to be used in diagnostics/clinical applications. The aptamer-based biosensors can improve the feasibility and reliability of the diagnostic test based on the specificity and selectivity of the aptamers generated against the specific biomarkers of pathogen.