This technology is a special form of atomic force microscopy (AFM) that can determine the chemical identities of DNA, proteins, and other biomolecules with Angstrom-scale resolution.
Current methods of sequencing DNA, proteins, and other biomolecules are accomplished through nanopore-based technologies. Even though these nanopore-based methods are effective, they often return unreliable or lower-quality data measurements. Additionally, these current technologies have limitations in their sequencing speed and in the maximum lengths in which these DNA (or other biomolecules) segments can be read. As such, there is a need for methods capable of achieving an accurate sequencing of individual nucleotides (or amino acids, etc.) at a higher resolution measurement that is not prone to background noise.
This technology utilizes a specialized form of AFM to determine the structure of molecules, which can be used for sequencing DNA. This method involves labeling a first location on the molecule with a first DNA strand and then measuring a force-time waveform using the twisting of a T-shaped atomic force microscope cantilever scanning across the molecule, where the cantilever includes a DNA probe that is complimentary to the first DNA strand. These steps can then be repeated to label multiple locations with DNA strands, in which the DNA probe has a complimentary region for each of the DNA strands. Using this method, this distance between each of these pairs can then be measured and, ultimately, used to generate the 3D structure of the molecules. Protein, RNA, sugar, or lipids can be utilized as part of this complex, making this technology exceedingly versatile. As a result, this provides an improved method for determining the structure of various molecules and identifying their biochemical composition with high resolution.
IR CU13086
Licensing Contact: Satish Rao