NANOHMICS INC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: DMEA201-001

Description

DMEA seeks to develop a robust technique to read DNA taggants from labeled electronic components to protect the electronic supply chain from counterfeiting. To address this need, Nanohmics Inc. proposes to develop an on-chip Sanger-based ion mobility sequencing technology (eSIM) with novel direct electrical read-out of the DNA sequence information. Specifically, the method involves incorporation of a novel porous semiconducting matrix that provides real-time, multiplexed, electrical readout of the diffusion of DNA fragments traversing chip-scale capillary channels. The method incorporates the high accuracy (99%) next-generation Sanger methods with a novel porous semiconducting matrix that provides real-time, multiplexed, electrical readout of the diffusion of DNA fragments and base sequence identity. The novel eSIM electrical read-out method overcomes one of the major barriers to the expanded utility of conventional dideoxy sequencing methods (e.g. microarrays and Sanger plates) - limitations imposed by fluorescence/optical-based labeling for endpoint detection.