4 ms·

Three decades of nanopore sequencing (2016)

32 points by lawrenceyan 5y ago

ncmncm 5y ago
It is astonishing to me they were able to get this working at all. Getting exactly one micropore mounted in a membrane, with the membrane neatly separating two volumes of solution, getting the DNA to feed endwise into the pore without tangling, getting the splitting enzyme attached to the pore, getting the strand (once entered) to move through the pore at a constant, not-too-fast, not-too-slow rate. All that is aside from figuring out what base is actually in the pore. Each of these seems possible, in principle, but having got it all working and reliable enough to be useful is what astonishes me. I think the only reason anybody imagined it could work is that cells do all of these sorts of things all the time.
- amelius 5y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrophysiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrophysiology I think this is the field where they got most of their tools from.
  - netizen-936824 5y ago
    Electrophysiology is fascinating! The methods used to study neurons and their ion channels are super interesting. One method is where a pipette with a super tiny tip is attached using suction to the membrane of a neuron, inside the pipette is one end of a circuit used to measure changes in conductance (through ion transfer) This allows a researcher to study the properties of individual (or small groups of) ion channels. You can either take measurements while attached to a whole neuron or you can give the pipette a little careful tug to rip off some piece of membrane to study a small subset of the channels present. This is called "inside out" Another similar method is "outside out" where the researcher applied more suction to break the membrane where the pipette is attached, then they can pull away and the membrane surrounding the pipette seal is allowed to reform. Really cool stuff! I recommend anyone interested in neuroscience read about some of these methods.
bryan0 5y ago
Related from 1 week ago: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29695013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29695013

32 points by lawrenceyan 5y ago

It is astonishing to me they were able to get this working at all. Getting exactly one micropore mounted in a membrane, with the membrane neatly separating two volumes of solution, getting the DNA to feed endwise into the pore without tangling, getting the splitting enzyme attached to the pore, getting the strand (once entered) to move through the pore at a constant, not-too-fast, not-too-slow rate. All that is aside from figuring out what base is actually in the pore. Each of these seems possible, in principle, but having got it all working and reliable enough to be useful is what astonishes me. I think the only reason anybody imagined it could work is that cells do all of these sorts of things all the time.

amelius 5y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrophysiology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrophysiology I think this is the field where they got most of their tools from.
- netizen-936824 5y ago
  Electrophysiology is fascinating! The methods used to study neurons and their ion channels are super interesting. One method is where a pipette with a super tiny tip is attached using suction to the membrane of a neuron, inside the pipette is one end of a circuit used to measure changes in conductance (through ion transfer) This allows a researcher to study the properties of individual (or small groups of) ion channels. You can either take measurements while attached to a whole neuron or you can give the pipette a little careful tug to rip off some piece of membrane to study a small subset of the channels present. This is called "inside out" Another similar method is "outside out" where the researcher applied more suction to break the membrane where the pipette is attached, then they can pull away and the membrane surrounding the pipette seal is allowed to reform. Really cool stuff! I recommend anyone interested in neuroscience read about some of these methods.

bryan0 5y ago

Related from 1 week ago: Sequencing your DNA with a USB dongle and open source code https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29695013 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29695013