Beyond the gene chip

• Published in: Bell Labs technical journal Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 5 - 22
• Main Authors: Heng, Jiunn Benjamin, Aksimentiev, Aleksei, Ho, Chuen, Dimitrov, Valentin, Sorsch, Thomas W., Miner, John F., Mansfield, William M., Schulten, Klaus, Timp, Gregory
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken IEEE 2005; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
• ISSN: 1089-7089; 1538-7305
• DOI: 10.1002/bltj.20102

We describe a prospective strategy for reading the encyclopedic information encoded in the genome: using a nanopore in a membrane formed from a metal-oxide semiconductor (MOS)-capacitor to sense the charge in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In principle, as DNA permeates the capacitor-membrane through the pore, the electrostatic charge distribution characteristic of the molecule should polarize the capacitor and induce a voltage on the electrodes that can be measured. Silicon nanofabrication and molecular dynamic simulations with atomic detail are technological linchpins in the development of this detector. The sub-nanometer precision available through silicon nanotechnology facilitates the fabrication of the detector, and molecular dynamics provides us with a means to design it and analyze the experimental outcomes.