Brainstorming Topic For Visit With Vincent Tabard-Cossa
During our meeting with Vincent Tabard-Cossa from U Ottawa, we are going to explore the concept of using nano porous silicon nitride membranes in electronic detection schemes for identifying nucleic acid:small molecule complexes.
The concept was demonstrated by Wanunu et al, Nano Letters, 2011, where they showed single nanopores were able to detect complexes of the antibiotic purinomycin with its target bacterial 16S ribosomal RNA. Please read this paper in advance of the meeting, as it will be the focus of our discussions.
We will explore any potential advantages provided by the multiple nanopores of NP SiN (e.g. statistical and/or throughput improvements) vs. single nanopores.
For background on nanopore-based electronic schemes, see the review by Myles et al, Chem Soc Rev, 2013.
One attractive model system for these explorations could be bacterial ribvoswitches, involved in metabolic sensing and fine-tuning of genes involved in related metabolic pathways. Riboswitches have growing interest as potential new antibiotic targets; see DeiEIgan, Acc Chem Res, 2011.
The WHO and CDC have recently released major reports over concerns about antibiotic resistance.