Patent ID: 7741033

Claim:
A method of detecting nucleic acid hybridization between a nucleic acid probe and a target nucleic acid in a sample, the method comprising: (a) providing a nucleic acid probe immobilized on nanoelectrode ensembles; (b) contacting under hybridization conditions the nanoelectrode ensembles and the immobilized nucleic acid probe with the sample and a redox pair comprising (i) a nucleic acid binding compound comprising a first transition metal complex that interacts electrostatically with the nucleic acid probe, and (ii) a redox-active probe comprising a second transition metal complex; wherein the sample and redox pair are in solution; and (c) measuring an electrocatalytic signal generated by hybridization of the nucleic acid probe and the target nucleic acid in the sample, wherein an increase of the signal detected relative to a signal of a control sample comprising no target nucleic acid, indicates hybridization between the nucleic acid probe and the target nucleic acid, and wherein a decrease in the signal detected relative to that of perfect complementarity between the nucleic acid probe and the target nucleic acid indicates a mismatch between the nucleic acid probe and the target nucleic acid.