Abstract
Sequencing of nucleic acids with nanopores has emerged as a powerful tool offering rapid readout, high accuracy, low cost and portability. This label-free method for sequencing at the single-molecule level is an achievement on its own. However, nanopores also show promise for the technologically even more challenging sequencing of polypeptides, something that could considerably benefit biological discovery, clinical diagnostics and homeland security, as current techniques lack portability and speed. Here we survey the biochemical innovations underpinning commercial and academic nanopore DNA/RNA sequencing techniques, and explore how these advances can fuel developments in future protein sequencing with nanopores.
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Acknowledgements
The Howorka Group receives funding from the Human Frontiers Science Program (RGP0047/2020), the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/N009282/1 and EP/V02874X/1), the Wellcome Institutional Strategic Support Fund, the Moorfields Biomedical Research Centre and Oxford Nanopore Technologies plc. We thank J. Ciccone, M. Booth, and K. F. Au for critically reading the manuscript, J. Ciccone and A. Rottensteiner for editing the figures, and J. Ciccone for helping edit the text.
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S.H. is named inventor on a patent on the CsgG nanopore which is licensed to Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd. S.H. and A.D. are named inventors on patents on DNA nanopores which are licensed to Oxford Nanopore Technologies Ltd.
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Dorey, A., Howorka, S. Nanopore DNA sequencing technologies and their applications towards single-molecule proteomics. Nat. Chem. 16, 314–334 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01322-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01322-x
