A new PCR-based method for HIV detection

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The objective of the proposed research is to develop an ultrasensitive photochemical amplification method for improving the performance of polymerase-chain reaction (PCR)-based detection of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A new technology allows one to increase the sensitivity, accuracy, dynamic range, signal-to-noise ratio, save costly reagents and reduce time of analysis. This unique approach has never been used before for improvement of the performance of these methods. We propose to further improve and optimize the new technology, so as to generate routine technique suitable for research and clinical practice. Thus, our proposal has diagnosis- and screening -related goals and applies new engineering principles to problems in biology and medicine. Preliminary analysis has shown that the new method has an enormous commercial and scientific potential.