FURI | Fall 2021

Chemotherapeutic Drug-Conjugated Microbead Technology for Selective Binding with Methylated and Unmethylated Small DNA in the Application of Disease Detection and Biomanufacturing

In a previous study, it was discovered that aminoglycoside-derived cationic polymer microbeads (called Amikabeads) have significant binding affinity towards negatively charged plasmid DNA due to coulombic interactions. The purpose of this study is to develop a small library of modified Amikabeads with a variety of DNA-intercalating chemotherapeutic drug molecules to modulate the ability of DNA binding. Further investigation on how these ligand-modified beads interact with small methylated and unmethylated DNA fragments (which mimics circulating tumor DNA or ctDNA) would help to develop a new technology for cancer detection and aid in improving biomanufacturing methods in the future.