Nanosensors for next generation drug screening
Published in In the proceedings of Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems, 2013
Recommended citation: Sridhar Kannam, Matthew Downton, Natalie Gunn, Sung Kim, Priscilla Rogers, Christine Schieber, Julia Baldauf, John Wagner, Daniel Scott, Ross Bathgate, Stan Skafidas, Stefan Harrer, "Nanosensors for next generation drug screening." In the proceedings of Micro/Nano Materials, Devices, and Systems, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2033737
1) The study focuses on evaluating drug screening technologies using protein translocation through nanopores.
2) It uses large-scale, atomistic simulations to compare expected and simulated current drop values.
3) The research is in the context of developing high-throughput, low-cost drug screening devices by combining nanofabrication and microfluidics techniques.
Abstract
One promising path for future drug screening technologies is to examine the binding of ligands to target proteins at the single molecule level by passing them through nanometer sized pores and measuring the change in pore current during translocation. With the aim of evaluating such technologies we perform virtual experiments on the translocation of proteins through silicon nitride nanopores. These simulations consist of large scale, fully atomistic models of the translocation process that involve steering a test protein through the nanopore on a timescale of tens of nanoseconds. We make a comparison between theoretically expected and simulated values of the current drop that is seen when the protein occupies the pore. Details of the stability of the protein and the preservation of its function as measured by its secondary and tertiary structure will be presented to validate both the simulation results and the fundamental design of the proposed device. Finally, the results will be placed in the context of experimental work that combines nanofabrication and microuidics to create a high throughput, low cost, drug screening device.