Four Aspects about Solid‐State Nanopores for Protein Sensing: Fabrication, Sensitivity, Selectivity, and Durability

Abstract

Solid‐state nanopores are a mimic of innate biological nanopores embedded on lipid membranes. They are fabricated on thin suspended layers of synthetic materials that provide superior thermal, mechanical, chemical stability, and geometry flexibility. As their counterpart biological nanopores reach the goal of DNA sequencing and become commercial, solid‐state nanopores thrive in aspects of protein sensing and have become an important research component for clinical diagnostic technologies. This review focuses on resistive pulse sensing modes, which are versatile for low‐cost, portable sensing devices and summarizes four main aspects toward commercially available resistive pulse‐based protein sensing techniques using solid‐state nanopores. In each aspect of fabrication, sensitivity, selectivity, and durability, brief fundamentals are introduced and the challenges and improvements are discussed. The rapid advance of a practical technique requires greater multidisciplinary cooperation. The review aims at clarifying existing obstacles in solid‐state nanopore based protein sensing, intriguing readers with existing solutions and finally encouraging multidisciplinary researchers to advance the development of this promising protein sensing methodology.

Biological Nanopore Approach for Single‐Molecule Protein Sequencing

“…Compared to biological nanopores,solid-state nanopores provide adjustable geometry and broad environmental tolerance,t herefore allowing protein sensing and sequencing in harsh conditions,such as high voltage,high temperature,low pH and strong denaturants (e.g.s odium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)). [113][114][115][116] Hence,i ntegrated nanopore arrays can be developed for high-throughput protein detection in parallel Angewandte Chemie Minireviews by combining biological nanopore sequencer with scalable solid-state nanopores. [117,118] Moreover,adeep dialogue between nanopore and other on-going methods,s uch as fluorescent fingerprinting and tunneling currents,will expand the opportunities for SMPS.…”

Biological Nanopore Approach for Single‐Molecule Protein Sequencing

“…Compared to biological nanopores,solid-state nanopores provide adjustable geometry and broad environmental tolerance,t herefore allowing protein sensing and sequencing in harsh conditions,such as high voltage,high temperature,low pH and strong denaturants (e.g.s odium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)). [113][114][115][116] Hence,i ntegrated nanopore arrays can be developed for high-throughput protein detection in parallel Angewandte Chemie Kurzaufsätze by combining biological nanopore sequencer with scalable solid-state nanopores. [117,118] Moreover,adeep dialogue between nanopore and other on-going methods,s uch as fluorescent fingerprinting and tunneling currents,will expand the opportunities for SMPS.…”

Plasmonic Biosensors for Single-Molecule Biomedical Analysis

“…Among nanoscale apertures, solid-state nanopores provide the basis for the development of stable and durable sensing platforms capable of achieving extremely low single-molecule detection limits with high specificity [ 1 , 30 ]. Nanopore sensors consist of an electrically thin insulating membrane traversed by 1–100 nm pores through which ions can cross [ 22 , 31 ].…”