Nanopore Devices for Single Molecule Sensing

Protein nanopores spanning a lipid bilayer membrane have been demonstrated as single molecule sensors that are highly sensitive to minute differences in the chemical and physical properties of the passing molecules. Nevertheless, their fixed aperture size, delicate physico-chemical, mechanical and electrical properties greatly limit the range of analytes and the repertoire of experimental possibilities. To overcome these limitations, nanoscale apertures on solid-state materials have been fabricated using state-of-the-art nanotechnologies, and have been used to probe the molecular characteristics of single nucleic acid chains.