Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Close encounters: integrating nanopores and CMOS amplifiers for single-molecule detection

Nature Methods volume 9, pages 453–454 (2012)Cite this article

Subjects

Using semiconductor processing to construct integrated circuits that reside close to nanopores, researchers demonstrate high-bandwidth, low-noise measurements of DNA translocation through solid-state nanopores.

Taking Coulter counting—the counting and sizing of molecules in an electrolyte suspension—to new limits, scientists have used biological and solid-state nanopores for close to two decades to detect single molecules. The ability to probe events at the molecular scale with these nanometer-sized detectors has resulted in a wide variety of bioanalytical applications, from the detection of protein-DNA binding events and the sizing of biopolymers to the identification of individual nucleic acid bases in a DNA strand, enabling DNA sequencing. At the same time the evolution of the detector systems has lagged, resulting in limitations to the potential uses of this approach. In particular, the bandwidth of the electronics available to researchers has limited the timescale of events that can be analyzed. In this issue of Nature Methods, Rosenstein et al.1 describe a method to increase the measurement bandwidth while maintaining noise low enough and amplification high enough that they can observe translocation of DNA through nanopores.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Schematic of a resistive pulse measurement of DNA translocation through a solid-state nanopore.

References

  1. Rosenstein, J.K., Wanunu, M., Merchant, C.A., Drndic, M. & Shepard, K.L. Nat. Methods 9, 487–492 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Kasianowicz, J.J., Brandin, E., Branton, D. & Deamer, D.W. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 93, 13770–13773 (1996).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Akeson, M., Branton, D., Kasianowicz, J.J., Brandin, E. & Deamer, D.W. Biophys. J. 77, 3227–3233 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Meller, A., Nivon, L., Brandin, E., Golovchenko, J. & Branton, D. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97, 1079–1084 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Uram, J.D., Ke, K. & Mayer, M. ACS Nano 2, 857–872 (2008).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. John S. Oliver and Valentin Dimitrov are at Nabsys Inc., Providence, Rhode Island, USA.,

    John S Oliver & Valentin Dimitrov

Authors
  1. John S Oliver
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Valentin Dimitrov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John S Oliver.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

J.S.O. and V.D. are employees of Nabsys Inc.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Oliver, J., Dimitrov, V. Close encounters: integrating nanopores and CMOS amplifiers for single-molecule detection. Nat Methods 9, 453–454 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1981

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.1981

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing