We describe the use of gold nanoparticle-oligonucleotide complexes as intracellular gene regulation agents for the control of protein expression in cells. These oligonucleotide-modified nanoparticles have affinity constants for complementary nucleic acids that are higher than their unmodified oligonucleotide counterparts, are less susceptible to degradation by nuclease activity, exhibit greater than 99% cellular uptake, can introduce oligonucleotides at a higher effective concentration than conventional transfection agents, and are nontoxic to the cells under the conditions studied. By chemically tailoring the density of DNA bound to the surface of gold nanoparticles, we demonstrated a tunable gene knockdown.

Color is everything: Hg²⁺ in aqueous media is detected by the formation of thymidine–Hg²⁺–thymidine coordination complexes, which raises the melting temperature of the DNA‐hybridized gold nanoparticle probes and thus the temperature at which the probes disperse and effect a purple‐to‐red color change. The method has very high sensitivity and selectivity, and it provides a simple and fast colorimetric readout (see picture).