Keynote Lecture 1: “Femtoliter chamber for single-molecule and single-cell analysis”

We developed reaction chamber arrays with a volume of a few femtoliters to monitor biological reactions at single-molecule level. Micro-meter holes were fabricated on the surface of a silicone elastic sheet (PDMS). Sample solutions were sandwiched between the fabricated sheet and a glass surface. Resultantly, solutions were enclosed in each chamber hermetically. The uniformly shaped chambers allow us stable and reversible enclosure of biological samples including ATP, protein, DNA strands and living cells. Due to its extremely small volume down to1 femtolitre (a cube of 1 micron), very small number of molecules can reach up to detectable concentrations. In this talk, I will introduce several examples of single-molecule or single-cell analysis with the femtoliter chamber system: single enzymatic assay, the measurement of chemomechanical coupling efficiency of a rotary molecular motor protein, single DNA analysis, and the multi-drug efflux measurement of a single bacteria cell. These experiments certify large potential of the micro reaction chamber for high throughput and high sensitive analysis.