Making light work

A system that uses light to diagnose mutated DNA sequences could dramatically speed up the time it takes to diagnose potential problems in the treatment of diseases such as leukaemia.

The work being carried out at the Durham Institute of Photonic Materials uses a luminescent polymer, similar to those in OLED displays, as an optical antenna to detect and illuminate small segments of DNA.

The Institute’s director, Prof Andy Monkman, said that using photonics to spot genetic mutation in this way would simplify and speed up the current process of DNA sequencing.

Existing bio-chemical methods of analysis can process a maximum of around 20 samples a week, whereas Monkman hopes that the new method could deal with up to 20 a day.

‘At the moment we are using this technique to look at mutation in diseases such as leukaemia,’ said Monkman. ‘Due to a genetic mutation some patients become immune to the drugs treating the disease and so it is extremely important to identify them as quickly as possible. At the moment the process is far too time-consuming.’