A nanopore-nanofiber mesh biosensor to control DNA translocation

Area of Science:

• Nanotechnology
• Biomedical Sensing
• Materials Science

Background:

• Solid-state nanopores are promising for single-molecule sensing in biomedical applications.
• Current nanopore sensors require longer analyte residence times for improved resolution and efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel modification for solid-state nanopore sensors to increase analyte dwell time.
• To reduce the translocation velocity of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) through nanopores.

Main Methods:

• Electrospinning of a copolymer nanofiber mesh (NFM) directly onto solid-state nanopore (NP) chips.
• Testing NFMs with varying mesh compositions to assess their effect on dsDNA translocation velocity.
• Evaluating the performance of a representative NFM on DNA molecules up to 20 kbp.

Main Results:

• Nanofiber mesh modification reduced dsDNA translocation velocity by 2 orders of magnitude or more.
• The degree of velocity reduction varied from 1- to >100-fold depending on NFM composition.
• The optimized NFM improved nanopore resolution and enabled discrimination between different DNA lengths.

Conclusions:

• The developed nanofiber mesh modification offers a facile and customizable approach to enhance solid-state nanopore sensor performance.
• This method effectively increases dsDNA dwell time in the nanopore, leading to improved sensing capabilities.
• The modified nanopore sensors show potential for advanced biomedical applications requiring high-resolution DNA analysis.