Daniel Branton

Nanopore Sequencing, a novel technology for sequencing and characterizing individual nucleic acid molecules using single-channel recording techniques, has been conceived. Single molecules of DNA are drawn through a small channel or nanopore that functions as a sensitive detector. The detection scheme, which is continuously being improved, transduces the different chemical and physical properties of each nucleobase into a characteristic electronic signal. Nanopore sequencing yields kilobase length reads and is now available in instruments ranging in size from table-top boxes able to sequence mammalian genomes to highly portable devices that have already been by NASA to sequence in space.

Deamer, D., M. Akeson, and D. Branton. 2016. Three decades of nanopore sequencing. Nature Biotechnology 34: 518-524.

Branton D. 2016. Fracture faces of frozen membranes: 50th anniversary. Molecular Biology of the Cell 27: 421-423.

Garaj, S., J.A. Golovchenko, and D. Branton. 2013. Molecule hugging graphene nanopores. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 110: 12192-12196.

Han, A., A. Kuan, J. Golovchenko, and D. Branton. 2012. Nanopatterning on nonplanar and fragile substrates with ice resists. Nano Letters 12: 1018-1021.

Sadki, E.S., S. Garaj, D. Vlassarev, J.A. Golovchenko, and D. Branton. 2011. Embedding a carbon nanotube across the diameter of a solid state nanopore. Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B 29: 053001.

Han, A., J. Chervinsky, D. Branton, and J.A. Golovchenko. 2011. An ice lithography instrument. Review of Scientific Instruments 82: 065110.

Han, A., D. Vlassarev, J. Wang, J.A. Golovchenko, and D. Branton. 2010. Ice lithography for nanodevices. Nano Letters 10: 5056-5059.

Garaj, S., W. Hubbard, A. Reina, J. Kong, D. Branton, and J.A. Golovchenko. 2010. Graphene as a subnanometre trans-electrode membrane. Nature 467: 190-194.

Albertorio, F., M.E. Hughes, J.A. Golovchenko, and D. Branton. 2009. Base dependent DNA-carbon nanotube interactions: activation enthalpies and assembly-disassembly control. Nanotechnology 20: 395101-1 – 395101-9.

Branton, D., D.W. Deamer, A. Marziali, H. Bayley, S.A. Benner, T. Butler, M. Di Ventra, S. Garaj, A. Hibbs, X. Huang, S.B. Jovanovich, P.S. Krstic, S. Lindsay, X.S. Ling, C.H. Mastrangelo, A. Meller, J.S. Oliver, Y.V. Pershin, J.M. Ramsey, R. Riehn, G.V. Soni, V. Tabard-Cossa, M. Wanunu, M. Wiggin, and J.A. Schloss. 2008. The potential and challenges of nanopore sequencing. Nature Biotechnology 26: 1146-1153.

Fologea, D., E. Brandin, J. Uplinger, D. Branton, and J. Li. 2007. DNA conformation and base number simultaneously determined in a nanopore. Electrophoresis 28: 3186-3192.

Kim, Y.-R., P. Chen, M.J. Aziz, D. Branton, and J.J. Vlassak. 2006. Focused ion beam induced deflections of freestanding thin films. J. Appl. Phys. 100: 104322-1 – 104322-9.

Park, S.Y., C.J. Russo, D. Branton, and H.A. Stone. 2006. Eddies in a bottleneck: An arbitrary Debye length theory for capillary electroosmosis. J. Colloid Interface Sci. 297: 832-839.

King, G.M., Schurmann, G., Branton, D. & Golovchenko, J.A. 2005. Nanometer patterning with ice. Nano Letters 5, 1157-1160.

Chen, P., J. Gu, E. Brandin, Y.R. Kim, Q. Wang, and D. Branton. 2004. Probing single DNA molecule transport using fabricated nanopores. Nano Letters 4: 2293-2298.

Wang, H., J.E. Dunning, A. P.-H. Huang, J.A. Nyamwanda, and D. Branton. 2004. DNA heterogeneity and phosphorylation unveiled by single-molecule electrophoresis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101: 13472-13477.

Chen, P., T. Mitsui, D.B. Farmer, J. Golovchenko, R.G. Gordon, and D. Branton. 2004. Atomic layer deposition to fine-tune the surface properties and diameters of fabricated nanopores. Nano Letters 4: 1333-1337.

Sauer-Budge, A.F., J.A. Nyamwanda, D.K. Lubensky, and D. Branton. 2003. Unzipping kinetics of double-stranded DNA in a nanopore. Phys. Rev. Lett. 90:23801-1 – 23801-4.

Deamer, D. and D. Branton. 2002. Characterization of nucleic acids by nanopore analysis. Acc. Chem. Res. 35:817-825.

Meller, A. and D. Branton. 2002. Single molecule measurements of DNA transport through a nanopore. Electrophoresis 23: 2583-2591.

Branton, D. and A. Meller. 2002. Using nanopores to discriminate between single molecules of DNA. In Structure and Dynamics of Confined Polymers (Kasianowicz, J.J., Kellermayer, M.S.Z., and Deamer, D.W., eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp. 177-185.

Wang, H., and D. Branton. 2001. Nanopores with a spark for single-molecule detection. Nature Biotechnology. 19:622-623.

Li, J., D. Stein, C. McMullan, D. Branton, M.J. Aziz, and J.A. Golovchenko. 2001. Ion-beam sculpting at nanometre length scales. Nature. 412:166-169.

Meller, A., L. Nivon, and D. Branton. 2001. Voltage-driven DNA translocations through a nanopore. Phys. Rev. Lett. 86:3435-3438.

Meller, A., L. Nivon, E. Brandin, J. Golovchenko, and D. Branton. 2000. Rapid nanopore discrimination between single polynucleotide molecules. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97: 1079-1084.