CPM Seminar

Single-molecule biophysics with solid-state nanopores

Vincent Tabard-Cossa

Genome Technology Center
Department of Biochemistry
Stanford University

Nanopores are nanometer-scale holes in a thin insulating membrane whose simple architecture permits the capture, manipulation and interrogation of individual molecules. As such, they offer a remarkable opportunity for the development of novel biophysical tools to perform quantitative measurements, with exceptional sensitivity, on the structure and behavior of biological molecules. In the first part of my talk, I will discuss the implementation of solid-state nanopores as a single molecule tool to characterize the strength of bonds with far greater ease than conventional force spectroscopy techniques. I will present results on DNA-DNA interactions for genotyping applications, and receptor-ligand interactions for drug screening. In the second part, I will present our ongoing efforts to design a nanopore device with embedded metal probes for long-range charge sensing of biomolecules. A molecule's ionic screening cloud can be distorted due to the relaxation effect under high electrical field and strong electro-diffusion present in the confined geometry of a nanopore. This phenomenon represents the physical basis for a unique detection modality where charged molecules are electrostatically sensed far beyond the standard Debye length.