CHANNEL CURRENT CHEMINFORMATICS AND BIOENGINEERING METHODS FOR IMMUNOLOGICAL SCREENING, SINGLE-MOLECULE ANALYSIS, AND SINGLE-MOLECULAR-INTERACTION ANALYSIS

摘要

Analytical tools and methods employing processing of channel current blockade measurements to detect or assess changes in environmental conditions generally, and more specifically, to detect and assess interactions between a blockade-producing auxiliary molecule in the channel and either the surrounding conductive medium generally or molecules in that conductive medium. The auxiliary molecule is disposed within the channel in order to generate a highly structured channel current blockade signal. The blockade signal resulting from inducing ionic current flow through the channel with auxiliary molecule present, is based on an auxiliary molecule chosen to be highly susceptible to modulation when the auxiliary molecule interacts with other molecules in the surrounding conductive medium, or when it otherwise is modified or affected at the molecular level by changes in the physical or chemical conditions of that surrounding medium. The tools and methods enable, amongst other things, candidate antibody screening, molecular affinity and bond strength analysis and detection of a variety of changes in test media, even at the molecular level.