Using nanopore DNA sequencing technology, researchers from TU Delft and the University of Illinois have managed to scan a single protein: by slowly moving a linearized protein through a tiny nanopore, one amino acid at the time, the researchers were able to read off electric currents that relate to the information content of the protein. The researchers published their proof-of-concept in Science today. The new single-molecule peptide reader marks a breakthrough in protein identification, and opens the way towards single-molecule protein sequencing and cataloguing the proteins inside a single cell.
Proteins are the workhorses of our cells, yet we simply don’t know what proteins we all carry with us. A protein is a long peptide string made of 20 different types of amino acids, comparable to a necklace with different kinds of beads. From the DNA blueprint, we are able to predict of…
