| Abstract: | A novel hydrogel suspension array, which possesses the joint advantages of quantum‐dot‐encoded technology, bioresponsive hydrogels, and photonic crystal sensors with full multiplexing label‐free DNA detection capability is developed. The microcarriers of the suspension array are quantum‐dot‐tagged DNA‐responsive hydrogel photonic beads. In the case of label‐free DNA detection, specific hybridization of target DNA and the crosslinked single‐stranded DNA in the hydrogel grid will cause hydrogel shrinking, which can be detected as a corresponding blue shift in the Bragg diffraction peak position of the beads that can be used for quantitatively estimating the amount of target DNA. The results of the label‐free DNA detection show that the suspension array has high selectivity and sensitivity with a detection limit of 10?9 M . This method has the potential to provide low cost, miniaturization, and simple and real‐time monitoring of hybridization reaction platforms for detecting genetic variations and sequencing genes. |
