Physical approaches to DNA sequencing: a Physicist's Perspective

Fast and low-cost DNA sequencing methods would revolutionize medicine: a person could have his/her full genome sequenced so that drugs could be tailored to his/her specific illnesses; doctors could know in advance patients' likelihood to develop a given ailment; cures to major diseases could be found faster. However, this goal of "personalized medicine" is hampered today by the high cost and slow speed of DNA sequencing methods: it costs several million dollars and six months time to sequence one human genome. I will first give an overview of recent proposals to achieve fast DNA sequencing using several techniques, ranging from optical to capacitive. I will finally discuss the protocol we suggest which would require the measurement of transverse currents during the translocation of single-stranded DNA into nanopores and support our conclusions with a combination of molecular dynamics simulations coupled to quantum mechanical calculations of electrical current in experimentally realizable systems. [1,2]

[1] M. Zwolak and M. Di Ventra, "Electronic signature of DNA nucleotides via transverse transport", Nano Lett. 5, 421 (2005).

[2] J. Lagerqvist, M. Zwolak, and M. Di Ventra, "Fast DNA sequencing via transverse electronic transport", cond-mat/0601394.