The Utility of Nanopore Technology for Protein and Peptide Sensing

Resistive pulse nanopore sensing enables label-free single-molecule analysis of a wide range of analytes. An increasing number of studies have demonstrated the feasibility and usefulness of nanopore sensing for protein and peptide characterization. Nanopores offer the potential to study a variety of protein-related phenomena that includes unfolding kinetics, differences in unfolding pathways, protein structure stability, and free-energy profiles of DNA-protein and RNA-protein binding. In addition to providing a tool for fundamental protein characterization, nanopores have also been used as highly selective protein detectors in various solution mixtures and conditions. This review highlights these and other developments in the area of nanopore-based protein and peptide detection.