Summary: Engineers at the University of Texas at Dallas have used advanced techniques to shrink the material graphene, graphite that has been changed into a strong sheet of bonded carbon atoms, small enough so that it could read DNA. Making the size of this graphene pore smaller to less than a nanometer makes it possible to be used as low-cost tool to sequence DNA. Being able to sequence DNA cheaper would allow scientists and doctors to better predict and diagnose disease and specifically construct a drug to an individual's genetic code. It was first established in 2004 that graphite could be turned in to graphene, and to this day graphene is believed to be the strongest material ever measured. Because it is thin and strong engineers have spent a long time trying to control the size of its pores. Now that scientists know pore size can be controlled, the next step to drive their research is to build a prototype device. Dr. Moon Kim and his team shrunk the nanopore by using an electron beam from an advanced electron microscope and simultaneously heating the nanopore to 1200˚ Celsius. According to Kim, "We used high temperature heating and electron beam simultaneously, one technique without the other doesn’t work."
Relevance: This article is relevant to our curriculum since we studied DNA in our unit on molecular genetics. We learned about the human genome project and that it took a lot of money and time to actually sequence the human genome. By enlarging the size of these graphene pores, it is possible to sequence DNA faster and cheaper by just pulling a strand through the pore. However, to make that happen, the next step is to build a prototype.
Research Shows Graphene Nanopores Can Be Controlled
By: LaKisha Ladson
October 2, 2012
http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2012/10/2-19931_Research-Shows-Graphene-Nanopores-Can-Be-Controlle_article-wide.html
How do these small pores help scientists to sequence DNA? In other words, how does this graphene sequencing work?
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