Prof. Juewen Liu

University of Waterloo

Abstract

DNA is a programmable polyanion with strong affinity towards metal species. This talk will cover three aspects. 1) In vitro selection of metal-specific DNAzymes. Using various metal ions as cofactors, we isolated a suite of new DNAzymes that can selectively detect them. 2) The adsorption of DNA by various metal oxides, gold and carbon based materials were studied, and the conjugation of DNA to these surfaces has been explored. 3) The enzyme-mimicking catalytic of inorganic nanomaterials has been explored to engineer better nanozymes for analytical applications.