%0 Journal Article %J Bell Labs Tech J %D 2005 %T Beyond the Gene Chip %A Jiunn B Heng %A Aleksei Aksimentiev %A Ho, C %A Valentin Dimitrov %A Sorsch, T %A Miner, J %A Mansfield, W %A Klaus Schulten %A Gregory Timp %X

We describe a prospective strategy for reading the encyclopedic information encoded in the genome: using a nanopore in a membrane formed from an MOS-capacitor to sense the charge in DNA. In principle, as DNA permeates the capacitor-membrane through the pore, the electrostatic charge distribution characteristic of the molecule should polarize the capacitor and induce a voltage on the electrodes that can be measured. Silicon nanofabrication and molecular dynamic simulations with atomic detail are technological linchpins in the development of this detector. The sub-nanometer precision available through silicon nanotechnology facilitates the fabrication of the detector, and molecular dynamics provides us with a means to design it and analyze the experimental outcomes.

%B Bell Labs Tech J %V 10 %P 5-22 %8 2005 %G eng %N 3 %R 10.1002/bltj.20102