Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 10, 2026

Fine-tuning the Size and Minimizing the Noise of Solid-state Nanopores
Published on: October 31, 2013
Detection of DNA hybridizations using solid-state nanopores
Venkat S K Balagurusamy1, Paul Weinger, Xinsheng Sean Ling
1Department of Physics, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA.
Abstract:
We report an experimental study of using DNA translocation through solid-state nanopores to detect the sequential arrangement of two double-stranded 12-mer hybridization segments on a single-stranded DNA molecule. The sample DNA is a trimer molecule formed by hybridizing three single-stranded oligonucleotides. A polystyrene bead is attached to the end of the trimer DNA, providing a mechanism in slowing down the translocation and suppressing the thermal diffusion, thereby allowing the detection of short features of DNA by standard patch-clamp electronics. The electrical signature of the translocation of a trimer molecule through a nanopore has been identified successfully in the temporal traces of ionic current. The results reported here represent the first successful attempt in using a solid-state nanopore as an ionic scanning device in resolving individual hybridization segments (or 'probes') on a DNA molecule.
Related Concept Videos
Southern Blot
Denatured DNA fragments must be transferred onto a carrier membrane from the gel to make it accessible to a probe - a small ssDNA fragment complementary to the target DNA...
Labeling DNA Probes
Radioisotopes, fluorophores, or small molecule binding partners like biotin or digoxigenin, are the most widely used reporter tags for labeling DNA probes. These labels can be attached to the probe DNA molecule via...

