CENTAR ZA TEORIJSKU FIZIKU

U sredu, 26.09.2012. sa početkom u 14 časova u sali bibliteke Instituta za fiziku održaće se predavanje:

CHALLENGES IN SINGLE-MOLECULE DNA SEQUENCING

Predrag S. Krstic,

TheoretiK Consulting, Knoxville , TN, USA

Joint Institute of Computational Sciences, University of Tennessee  & Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

Department for Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA

The main challenges of the so called physical approaches to DNA sequencing, based on the reading of electrical signals associated to the DNA bases while a single DNA polymer is translocated through the synthetic nanopore [1], are twofold: (1) electric signal-to-noise ratio that distinguishes between the DNA bases and (2) full control and localization of a DNA in the nanoelectrode  gap or nanopore. We study both issues for  various  types of the  nanopore  technologies (carbon nanotubes, silicon nanopores and  linear quadrupole , aqueous  nanotraps), by multiscale  theoretical approaches, ranging  from  quantum mechanical , quantum-classical and classical molecular dynamics, to continuum fluid dynamics. Our results are validated by experiments at Arizona State University [2,3] (Stuart Lindsay) and  Yale University [4,5] (Mark Reed). This talk will discuss problems and possible solutions for DNA translocation and tunneling recognition with electrode functionalization in presence of thermal fluctuations, viscosity, electrophoretic, dielectrophotretic and electroosmotic  forces. 

[1] Branton D et al,  NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY  26, 1146-1153  (2008).

[2]   Liu HT et al, , SCIENCE, 327(5961), 68  (2010).

[3] P. Pang et al, , ACS NANO  5 (9), 7277–7283 (2011).

[4] W. Guan et al, ,  PNAS  108 (23),  9326-9330 (2011).

[5] Park, J. H. et al,  SMALL 8, 907 (2012).