Chemically functionalized conical PET nanopore for protein detection at the single-molecule level.

Proteins are essential for all living organisms, and perform a wide variety of functions in the cell and human body, including structural, mechanical, biochemical, and signaling. Since proteins can serve as valuable biomarkers for health status and diseases states, and enable personalized medicine, sensitive and rapid detection of proteins is of paramount importance. Herein, we report a chemically functionalized conical shaped poly-(ethylene terephthalate) nanopore (PET nanopore) as a stochastic sensing element for detection of proteins at the single-molecule level. We demonstrate that the PET nanopore sensor is not only sensitive and selective, but also can differentiate proteins rapidly, offering the potential for label-free protein detection and characterization. Our developed PET nanopore sensing strategy not only provides a general platform for exploring fundamental protein dynamics and rapid detection of proteins at the single-molecule level, but also opens new avenues toward advanced deeper understanding of enzymes, development of more efficient biosensing technologies, and constructing novel biomimetic nanopore systems.