Capture and translocation of DNA and other polyelectrolytes by a nanopore using a temporal ratchet

Polymer translocation is the process by which a long polymer molecule is forced to move through a nanoscopic hole in a wall in order to move from one side of the wall to the other. Many lower-resolution devices can be built using the general idea of forced polymer or macromolecule translocation, e.g. in the fields of biomolecular purification, DNA diagnostics or molecular identification. The wide range of initial polymer conformations leads to a broad distributions of translocation times; this phenomenon makes it difficult to design efficient devices. In our project we will explore a novel idea: using an asymmetric pulsed electric field to drive the translocation of the DNA molecule as a ratchet translocation process whose performance strongly depend on the DNA size. This study will use state-of-the-art simulation tools and make specific predictions to be tested in laboratories. TO BE CONT’D

Faculty Supervisor:

Gary Slater

Student:

Partner:

Universität Stuttgart

Discipline:

Physics

Sector:

Education

University:

University of Ottawa

Program: