The team from Imperial College London have developed
When analysing body fluid samples for signals of a disease, scientists are often looking for very rare molecules within a complex mixture. In order to find such 'needles in a haystack', scientists often use methods that detect single molecules at a time.
One promising technology is nanopore sensing, where individual molecules are passed through a very small nanometer-sized hole. This process results in each molecule producing its own unique signature, without the need for lengthy sample preparation or chemical modification.
However, different molecules of the same size can produce very similar signals, making it hard to uniquely identify the target molecule.
To solve this problem, a team led by Imperial College London have developed a system based on a nanopore and a nanoscale transistor, which can recognise target molecules in a similar way to biological receptors. The details of their new system are published today in Nature Communications.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2017-09-nature-lock-and-key-rapid-medical-diagnostics.html#jCp
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