Bench-top system for detection and analysis of miRNA using solid-state nanopores

The fast and reliable detection of single molecules holds the promise of revolutionising diagnostics, disease prevention as well as biological research by offering unprecedented resolution compared to bulk approaches.

Based on work done as part of the ‘DesignerPore’ ERC consolidator grant (Nature Nanotechnology 2016) we will develop a benchtop device capable of detecting hundreds of molecular targets within tens of minutes.

We will combine our recent development in nanopore sensing technology (JACS 2015) with machine-learning (Nano Letters 2018) and advanced statistics (arxiv 2019) to create a new versatile single molecule technique.

Ultimately, our PoreDetect technology has the potential to become an integral part of handheld or wearable devices allowing real time tracking of disease markers for personalised medicine, bacterial infections or environmental contaminants.

While the technique is not limited to the detection of certain molecules, for this proof-of-concept we aim to focus on sensing short oligonucleotides tens of base pairs in length, with immediate applications in the quantification of cell-free (cfRNA) and microRNA (miRNA) as cancer biomarkers.