Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
7694137 Current Opinion in Chemical Biology 2016 10 Pages PDF
Abstract
Today, hundreds of researchers are working on nanopores, making an impact in both basic science and biotechnology. Proteins remain the most versatile sources of nanopores, based on our ability to engineer them with sub-nanometer precision. Recent work aimed at the construction and discovery of novel pores has included unnatural amino acid mutagenesis and the application of selection techniques. The diversity of structures has now been increased through the development of helix-based pores as well as the better-known β barrels. New developments also include truncated pores, which pierce bilayers through lipid rearrangement, and hybrid pores, which do away with bilayers altogether. Pore dimers, which span two lipid bilayers, have been constructed and pores based on DNA nanostructures are gaining in importance. While nanopore DNA sequencing has received enthusiastic attention, protein pores have a wider range of potential applications, requiring specifications that will require engineering efforts to continue for years to come.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering Chemistry Chemistry (General)
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