Hydromechanical Modulation of Enzymatic Kinetics Using Microfluidically Configurable Nanoconfinement Arrays

Confinement of molecules occurs ubiquitously in nature and fundamentally affects their properties and reactions. Developing synthetic confinement systems capable of precise modulation of chemical reactions is critical to understanding the underlying mechanisms and to promoting numerous applications including biosensing. However, current nanoconfinement systems often require sophisticated fabrication and operation. Here we report a simplified nanoconfinement approach termed Configurable Hydromechanical Enzyme Modulation by Nanoconfinement Landscaping of Chemical Kinetics (CHEMNLOCK). This approach exploits a simple micropost device to generate an array of nanogaps with tunable geometries, enabling flexible spatial modulation of the kinetics of surface-bound enzymatic reactions and substantial enhancement of single-molecule reactions. We envision that the CHEMNLOCK concept could pave a new way for developing scalable and practical nanoconfinement systems with profound impacts on biosensing and clinical diagnostics.