Biological sensors are an important part of medical diagnostics and they are a growth industry reportedly worth around $10 bn worldwide. In this application a platform is proposed that builds on preliminary work from my ERC starting grant (NanoP) in order to develop a technology for high throughput electronic recognition of a large library of proteins using nanometer sized channels. These channel (or nanopore) dimensions are on the same order of magnitude as the proteins that we are using, making a natural confinement mechanism. Importantly, this allows for the efficient detection and screening of individual protein molecules and as will be shown in a high throughput manner. When compared to more conventional techniques for example, antibody recognition is usually coupled to a quantitative optical readout through ELISA assays, or a qualitative colour readout and is limited by low concentrations in essence screening rare events. Although this method is perhaps considered to be a standard in diagnostics labs, there is significant room for improvement especially in the context of the classification and detection of rare events, speed, and sensitivity. Here we propose to couple biological recognition to a direct electrical output via a nanopore, enabling miniaturization that will lead to faster processing times, scalability for multiplexing and sensitivity for accurate and quantitative analysis. What we propose is a true single molecule technique, which will allow for statistics to be obtained on rare events. Furthermore, this grant will allow for appropriate market research and IP landscaping to be performed in order to ensure the preferred option of setting up a spin-out company will be positioned correctly to ensure success.
