UCSD physicists model 100,000-atom nanopore reading DNA
From New Scientist, we learn of the modeling by UCSD physicists of 100,000 atoms to test the design of a silicon nitride nanopore reading DNA 200 times faster than doable today:
“The system could process the human genome in hours, researchers claim, compared with the 6 months it would take in today’s best labs.
” ‘Because we’re all physicists working on this we’ve started at the very bottom – with atoms,’ explains Johan Lagerqvist, a physicist at the University of California, San Diego, US, who worked on the simulation. Lagerqvist and colleagues tested a virtual version of the system by modelling how 100,000 atoms in a short DNA strand, the silicon nitride nanopore, its electrodes and the surrounding chemical solution would all interact.” There’s a 19.5 MB MPEG movie.
Meanwhile, the Harvard Nanopore Group led by Daniel Branton is attempting to build a similar nanopore. (Source: FUTUREdition) —Christine
April 22nd, 2006 at 12:09 PM
Here is a link to the paper:
http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0601394
August 21st, 2006 at 5:19 PM
[...] We don’t usually like to link to subscription sites, but as an editorial advisory board member, I’ll make an exception for Nanotech Briefs (you can download a free sample). The August issue has the usual hard-core technical news: SiGe transistor operates at frequencies above 500 GHz, Method creates hollow nanocrystals, nanopore technique sequences DNA [note: despite the headline, this is a computer model, not a physical experimental result, though it sounds as though the latter may be getting close], Bacterial detection using quantum dot nanocomplexes, Miniature airborne-particle-mass monitors, Dot-in-well quantum dot photodetectors. [...]