Alexandra D. Kent

TL;DR: An aptamer-based analogue of the widely used sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that demonstrates detection of cocaine at concentrations of 100 nM-100 μM in buffer and 1- 100 μM human blood serum and highlights the utility of covalently trapping split aptamer assembly events.

TL;DR: Four new split aptamer sequences are introduced, which triples the number of small-molecule-binding DNA split aptamers reported to date, and the methods described herein provide a reliable route for the engineering of additional split aptAMers, dramatically advancing the potential substrate scope of DNA assembly based biosensors.

TL;DR: Investigation of the effect of buffer identity, ionic strength, pH, and organic cosolvents on the rate of strain-promoted azide-alkyne cycloaddition with the widely used DIBAC cyclooctyne finds that bioconjugation reactions can be carried out in the buffer that is most compatible with the biomolecules being labeled.

TL;DR: In this article , a ribozyme-mediated repair of damaged and mismatched RNA sequences was shown to increase the fidelity and processivity of RNA polymerization along a template, and the pyrophosphorolysis reaction directly yields a nucleoside triphosphate.

TL;DR: A unique RNA sequence is engineered that recruits bioluminescent molecules upon transcription that provides the foundation for visualizing RNA dynamics in vivo and is optimized to modularly tag and visualize RNAs in a variety of contexts.