Congratulations to François for his paper in ACS Appl. Polym. Mater.
DNA polyplex NPs for fuel markinig applications © 2025 EPFL/François Noverraz - CC-BY
The entire oil supply is jeopartized by organized crime, which emerged as a global issue undermining economic stability, environmental health and security. One key element in the fight against illegal fuel trade relies in the development of efficient technologies for fuel authentication and tracking. The use of chemical taggants, such as azo dyes and anthraquinone derivatives, is facing several limitations, including their degradation due to the exposition to harsh conditions and the interference of fuel additives in the detection methods.
To address these challenges, we joined forces with SICPA to develop new tagging systems based on polyplex nanoparticles (NP) protecting DNA tagging sequences from degradation and ensuring their dispersion in fuel matrices. Based on chitosan-polyethylenimine co-polymers reticulated with a short DNA sequence, the resulting NP-based markers were further functionalized with hydrophobic units to enable their dispersion in kerosene and diesels. Following high dilution down to 0.5 ppb, the polyplex NP were efficiently recovered and disassembled under mild conditions for futher detection of the tagging sequence by qPCR. These results highlight the potential of encapsulated nucleic acid tags for the marking and authentication of fuel products.
Read more here!
Noverraz, F.; Le Jeune, M.; Milos, M.; Lopez Gejo, J.; Gerber-Lemaire, S. DNA Encapsulation in Polymeric-Based Nanomaterials for Authentication and Tracking. ACS Appl. Polym. Mater. 2025, https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.5c00812