Enhanced Single-Molecule Detection using Porous Silver Membrane

We evaluated a commercial porous silver membrane as a support substrate for direct localization and visualization of single molecule events. We characterized the fluorescence behaviors of fluorescently labeled DNA oligonucleotides on the silver membranes. The fluorescence from the fluorescent probes that were immobilized on the porous silver is greatly enhanced. Additionally, correlated to reflectance contour image, it appears that enhanced fluorescence came from location close to the "valley" of the pore channels (or in the voids). These results are of great interest to increase the effectiveness of fluorescence-based single molecule DNA analysis.