Nanopore-based technologies have attracted much attention recently for their promising use in low-cost and high-throughput genome sequencing. To achieve single-base resolution of DNA sequencing, it is critical to slow and control the translocation of DNA, which has been achieved in a protein nanopore but not yet in a solid-state nanopore. Using all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, we invest...

Electroporation of neurons, i.e. electric-field induced generation of membrane nanopores to facilitate internalization of molecules, is a classic technique used in basic neuroscience research and recently has been proposed as a promising therapeutic strategy in the area of neuro-oncology. To optimize electroporation parameters, optical techniques capable of delivering time and spatially-resolve...

The sorption-desorption hysteresis observed in many nanoporous solids, at vapor pressures low enough for the the liquid (capillary) phase of the adsorbate to be absent, has long been vaguely attributed to changes in the nanopore structure, but no mathematically consistent explanation has been presented. The present work takes an analytical approach to account for discrete molecular forces in th...

Using nanopores for single-molecule sequencing of proteins - similar to nanopore-based sequencing of DNA - faces multiple challenges, including unfolding of the complex tertiary structure of the proteins and enforcing their unidirectional translocation through nanopores. Here, we combine molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with single-molecule experiments to investigate the utility of SDS (Sodi...

Magnetic fields induced by currents created in pressure driven flows inside a solid-state charged nanopore were modeled by numerically solving a system of steady state continuum partial differential equations, i.e., Poisson, Nernst-Planck, Ampere and Navier-Stokes equations (PNPANS). This analysis was based on non-dimensional transport governing equations that were scaled using Debye length as ...

Ultrathin nanopore membranes based on 2D materials have demonstrated ultimate resolution toward DNA sequencing. Among them, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) shows long-term stability as well as superior sensitivity enabling high throughput performance. The traditional method of fabricating nanopores with nanometer precision is based on the use of focused electron beams in transmission electron micro...

BACKGROUND The MinION™ nanopore sequencer was recently released to a community of alpha-testers for evaluation using a variety of sequencing applications. Recent reports have tested the ability of the MinION™ to act as a whole genome sequencer and have demonstrated that nanopore sequencing has tremendous potential utility. However, the current nanopore technology still has limitations with resp...

The separation of biomolecules and other nanoparticles is a vital step in several analytical and diagnostic techniques. Towards this end we present a solid state nanopore-based set-up as an efficient separation platform. The translocation of charged particles through a nanopore was first modeled mathematically using the multi-ion model and the surface charge density of the nanopore membrane was...

The "$1000 Genome" project has been drawing increasing attention since its launch a decade ago. Nanopore sequencing, the third-generation, is believed to be one of the most promising sequencing technologies to reach four gold standards set for the "$1000 Genome" while the second-generation sequencing technologies are bringing about a revolution in life sciences, particularly in genome sequencin...

A fabrication method for positioning and embedding a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) across the diameter of a solid state nanopore is presented. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is used to grow SWNTs over arrays of focused ion beam (FIB) milled pores in a thin silicon nitride membrane. This typically yields at least one pore whose diameter is centrally crossed by a SWNT. The final diameter ...