Detection of Species of Biological, Environmental, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Importance by Nanopore and Graphene Oxide Sensors

Nanopore sensors have emerged as a label-free and amplification-free technique for measuring single molecules. First proposed in the mid 1990s, nanopore detection takes advantage of the ionic current modulations produced by the passage of target analytes through a single nanopore at a fixed applied potential. Over the last 20 years, these nanoscale sized pores have been utilized for biosensing, sequencing DNA molecules, studying covalent and non-covalent bonding interactions, investigating biomolecular folding and unfolding, probing enzyme kinetics, and so on.

A major issue of utilizing nanopore sensors for various applications is the rapid transport of target analytes through the nanopore. Many of such rapid events could not be accurately detected by the currently available recording technique. Several strategies have been used to slow down molecular and ionic transport, thus improving the resolution and sensitivity of nanopore sensors. These include variation of the experimental conditions, use of a host compound, and modification of the analyte molecule and the nanopore sensor itself. In this presentation, Guan will highlight some of the recent research efforts of the research group, especially utilization of probe-based nanopore sensing strategy for various new applications in medical diagnosis, homeland security, pharmaceutical screening, and environmental monitoring. In addition, recent efforts of the research group to develop graphene oxide-based fluorescent sensors for protease biomarkers will be briefly introduced.