Visit from Vincent Tabard-Cossa – May 13
On May 13, Jim McGrath and I are hosting Vincent Tabard-Cossa from the University of Ottawa. We will be interacting with Vincent as a sort of NRG mini-retreat day. See the information below.
Vincent’s U Ottawa Page
Visit Agenda
Tuesday, May 13
9:00-10:00AM – BME Dept seminar by Vincent Tabard-Cossa
10:00-11:15AM – Nanomembrane Research Group discussions
• Jim McGrath: overview of NRG, nanomembrane filtration and electro-osmosis applications
• Karl Smith: Tuning charge-based nanomembrane separations
• Josh Winans & JP DesOrmeaux: Fabrication of nanoporous Silicon nitride membranes
11:15-11:30 – Break
11:30-12:00 – Using nanoporous SiN for RNA:small molecule complex detection
• Jamie Roussie – Introduction
• Group brainstorming
12:00PM – Lunch and continued brainstorming
1:30PM – End meeting
Vincent’s Seminar Abstract
Controlled Dielectric Breakdown – A new strategy to fabricate solid-state nanopores to characterize nucleic acids and proteins at the single-molecule level.
Vincent Tabard-Cossa
Center for Interdisciplinary NanoPhysics, Department of Physics, University of Ottawa
150 Louis-Pasteur, Ottawa, ON, Canada
The nanopore field was initially shaped by the ability of researchers to exploit biological channels to translocate individual molecules. Some years later, the field experienced a revolution when new techniques to fabricate nanometer scale holes in solid-state materials were developed. These techniques, based on a beam of energetic ions or electrons, allowed some well-equipped academic laboratories to sculpt a single nanopore in a thin, mechanically robust membrane, and tune its geometry, diversifying the breadth of applications. Since then, ion beam sculpting and transmission electron microscopy-based drilling have remained the tools of choice for fabricating individual solid-state nanopores at the sub- 10-nm length scale with single nanometer precision. However, one of today’s greatest barriers to further development of the nanopore field is the complexity, low- throughput, and high cost associated with these techniques. These factors restrict accessibility to the field to many researchers, greatly limit the productivity of the community, and prevent mass production of nanopore-based technologies.
In this talk, I will present the recent progress in my group to develop an alternative nanofabrication strategy for making solid-state nanopores based on the use of high electric fields to control dielectric breakdown directly in solution [1-3]. I will discuss the basis of this method and how it can be applied for the automated and low-cost, fabrication of individual sub-2nm nanopores. I will also show how this technique can be extended to metallized membranes to fabricate pores in more complex devices, and be integrated into microfluidic circuitry for processing of complex biological samples and to fabricate arrays of individually addressable nanopore sensors for diagnostic applications.
[1. Briggs et al. Small (2014); 2. Kwok et al. PLoS ONE (2014); 3. Beamish et al. Nanotechnology (2012)]
