Covalent assembly of silica nanoparticle aggregates for oligonucleotide synthesis

Bioassays need to be explicit, reproducible and therefore reliable, and have the highest sensitivity possible. It has previously been demonstrated that high surface area silica aggregates can serve as substrates for oligonucleotide synthesis in conventional DNA synthesis machines, and that high sensitivity is observed in subsequent DNA capture and detection in DNA microarray-based assays. However, the process for aggregate formation using the …