A hydrogel film microarray stabilizes very short structure switching aptamer duplexes to achieve enhanced sensing of small molecules

The reduction of affinity associated with the modifications required to create FRET- aptamer constructs represents a key challenge hindering the practical adaptation of such systems for small molecule detection. While the use of shorter and rationally positioned quencher stems is desirable to enhance target-induced fluorescence recovery, the weak hybridization potential of such stems results in high levels of background fluorescence and poor …