Enhanced sensitivity and specificity for targeting biomolecules is a significant challenge in biomedicine. Recently, multivalent probes have been developed to improve target selectivity, but it is still in an early stage. In this dissertation, novel biomolecular probes are proposed for biochemical applications such as disease diagnostic and therapeutic.
Chapter 1 provides research background of multivalent interactions.
Chapter 2 describes the fabrication of protein based polymer for multivalent binding control. Rhizavidin is successfully engineered and self-assembled to produce avidin oligomer mixtures. We then purified each oligomer clearly, and characterized the properties. These new protein probes will be applied to study of multivalent interactions as protein linker.
Chapter 3 represents multi-DNA probes for effective microRNA detection to enhance sensitivity and specificity. We demonstrated this three-probe complex was effective to detect microRNA with low melting temperature. This strategy was applied Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) on “hot spot” of gold surface to enhance hybridization yields.
Chapter 4 represents the characterization of ferritin nanocages for active drug loading. Previously, we developed a nicked ferritin (Nicked-HF) with active drug loading. We removed unstably bounded drugs, then demonstrated doxorubicin is stably retained inside the nicked ferritin by cryoEM.