Thomas Z. Butler

TL;DR: A nanopore-based device provides single-molecule detection and analytical capabilities that are achieved by electrophoretically driving molecules in solution through a nano-scale pore, a unique analytical capability that makes inexpensive, rapid DNA sequencing a possibility.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the ionic current through the engineered Mycobacterium smegmatis porin A, MspA, has the ability to distinguish all four DNA nucleotides and resolve single-nucleotides in single- Stranded DNA when double-stranded DNA temporarily holds the nucleotide in the pore constriction.

TL;DR: This work designs and constructed an MspA mutant capable of electronically detecting and characterizing single molecules of ssDNA as they are electrophoretically driven through the pore, and highlights its potential as an engineerable platform for single-molecule detection and characterization applications.

TL;DR: Findings emphasize that the directionality of polynucleotide molecules is an important factor in translocation and demonstrate how structure within ionic current signals can give new insights into the translocation process.

TL;DR: The utility of alpha-hemolysin as a model system to study biologically relevant physical and chemical processes at the single-molecule level is emphasized, and a semiquantitative model of these trends suggests that escape has stronger voltage dependence than threading, and that threading is sensitive to polymer orientation while escape is not.