SEMINAR @ SISSA, SBP, dr. M. Di Ventra - June 21, at 11.00 hrs.

[Barbara Corzani]

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STATISTICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PHYSICS SEMINAR
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Massimiliano Di Ventra
Department of Physics
University of California, San Diego

 

 Title:

“Fast DNA sequencing: a physicist’s perspective”

 

Tuesday June 21, 2011 @ 11.00 a.m.

 

SISSA – A Building – room 005
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Abstract:

Fast and low-cost DNA sequencing methods would revolutionize medicine: a person could have his/her full genome sequenced so that drugs could be tailored to his/her specific illnesses; doctors could know in advance patients’ likelihood to develop a given ailment; cures to major diseases could be found faster. However, this goal of “personalized medicine” is hampered today by the high cost and slow speed of DNA sequencing methods. In this talk, I will first give an overview of recent proposals to achieve fast DNA sequencing using several techniques, ranging from optical to capacitive. I will finally discuss the sequencing protocol we suggest which would require the measurement of transverse currents during the translocation of single-stranded DNA into nanopores and support our conclusions with a combination of molecular dynamics simulations coupled to quantum mechanical calculations of electrical current in experimentally realizable systems. I will also discuss recent experiments that support these theoretical predictions. In addition to their possible impact in medicine and biology, the above methods offer ideal test beds to study open scientific issues in the relatively unexplored area at the interface between solids, liquids, and biomolecules at the nanometer length scale [1].

[1] M. Zwolak, M. Di Ventra, “ <http://physics.ucsd.edu/%7Ediventra/DNAreviewfinal.pdf> Physical Approaches to DNA Sequencing and Detection”, Rev. Mod. Phys. 80, 141 (2008).