Nano Lett., 7 (12), 3854 -3858, 2007. 10.1021/nl0726205 S1530-6984(07)02620-3
Web Release Date: November 28, 2007

Copyright © 2007 American Chemical Society

Identification of DNA Basepairing via Tunnel-Current Decay

Jin He, Lisha Lin, Peiming Zhang, and Stuart Lindsay*

Biodesign Institute, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287

Received October 10, 2007

Revised October 25, 2007

Abstract:

We propose a new approach for reading the sequence of a DNA molecule passing between electrodes on a nanopore, using hydrogen bond-mediated tunneling signals. The base-electrode interaction is modeled using a nucleo-base-functionalized STM probe that is pulled away from a nucleoside monolayer. Watson-Crick recognition results in slow decay of the tunnel current, which is uniquely characteristic of the basepair in over half the reads. Thirteen independent reads would yield the desired 99.99% accuracy.


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