Nanopores

Research into nanopores has been conducted at leading academic institutions worldwide for 15 years, revealing their unique capacity to detect and analyse specific molecules, i.e. to act as 'biosensors.” Oxford Nanopore was founded to develop this technology into potential commercial applications. Existing methods of detecting single molecules are complex and expensive, and an improved method could potentially enable applications such as:

* Fast and inexpensive sequencing of DNA or other nucleic acids, with multiple applications in medicine, agriculture, energy, and more.
* Rapid detection of chemical or biological molecules for security and defence, including, chemical or biological weapons such as anthrax.
* Accurate detection of biological markers for diagnostics, including infectious diseases with high impact on global heath, such as Hepatitis C and the flu virus.
* Ion channel screening for drug development
* The label-free analysis of interactions between biological molecules. For example, nanopore technology may be adapted to analyse antibody-epitope, protein-DNA, protein-protein or protein-sugar interactions.
* For more details see Applications


Research from Professor Hagan Bayley's group has led to the pioneering use of biological nanopores as sensors of a range of targets from small organic molecules to proteins, antibodies and viral agents. More recently it has been shown that nanopores may form the basis of a label-free, amplification-free DNA sequencing system. This world-leading science is being developed into a proprietary system specifically for DNA analysis, called BASE™ Technology. While Oxford Nanopore is currently focusing its R&D in this area, the resulting technology developments will also be fundamental to other molecular analysis applications.

Oxford Nanopore also has partnerships with other leading nanopore research groups around the world. The relationships within this global network contribute to the existing development process, and will contribute to future generations of nanopore technology.

A nanopore is, essentially, a very small hole. This hole may be formed either by a protein pore set into a membrane (biological nanopores), or by artificially creating a hole in solid materials (solid state nanopores). Oxford Nanopore is currently working with protein nanopores that have an inner diameter of 1nm, about 100,000 times smaller than that of a human hair. The inner diameter of the nanopore is on the same scale as many single molecules, including DNA.

Similar protein pores are found naturally in cell membranes, where they act as channels for ions or molecules to be transported in and out of cells. For example, the bacteria S. aureus produces protein nanopores such as α-hemolysin as a tool to extract the contents of the cells of other organisms.

The α-hemolysin nanopore can be adapted using protein engineering techniques, to be a sensor for a range of specific molecules. This can be done in a variety of ways including:

* The incorporation of a specific binding site within the nanopore, that will bind transiently with the molecule being detected
* The incorporation of a DNA probe to detect an organism with the matching DNA code.

http://www.oxtrust.org.uk/news/306714

http://www.nanoporetech.com/sections/first/14