Binary DNA hairpin-based colorimetric biochip for simultaneous detection of Pb(2+) and Hg(2+) in real-world samples.

A microarray-format colorimetric biochip was constructed on plastic using two specially-designed DNA hairpin strands as binary probes and a binding-induced conformational switching strategy as the signal generation protocol. Coupled with single- or dual-color staining, we were able to simultaneously detect and quantitate the trace amounts of Pb(2+) and Hg(2+) in various real-world samples.