Mechanics of molecular beacons for mRNA detecting

Biomechanics in “Sino-Italian Joint”

“…Understanding the mechanism of genetic information decoding is the key to the development of advanced gene therapy and cancer diagnosis technology, among which detection of RNA in living cells by using molecular-beacons has emerged as a promising tool for live-cell interrogation. Gong and Shi [2] established a theoretical model based on continuum mechanics to study the interaction between the molecular-beacon and target system, and revealed that the hybridization between the target and stem is energetically favorable compared with that between the target and loop, implying a new detection strategy.…”