ABSTRACT
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XANTHON™, Inc., of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, was founded in 1996 to commercialize a novel detection technology discovered at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Technology development efforts have culminated in a unique platform that unites microelectronics (semiconductor microcircuitry), molecular biology, and electrochemistry for the direct detection of nucleic acids. The method is based on the ability of a chemical mediator to exploit the naturally occurring guanine content of nucleic acids. In the XANTHON system, an electrical
potential is applied to an electrode in the presence of a transition-metal complex and a current is produced that is proportional to the amount of guanine present at the electrode. This reaction is quantitative and highly reproducible, offering direct detection of nucleic acids without the need for sample purification, sample amplification, or the introduction of chemical labels.
