IBM is working on prototype DNA-processing electronics that feeds DNA through a nanopore, measuring the electrical properties of the chemicals at a more precise manner.
IBM's approach uses a flat device about 250 nanometers with a thin alternating layers of metal and a material called a dielectric. The nanopore is bored through these layers using an electron beam from a tunneling electron microscope. On one side of the layer is the DNA, unzipped from its familiar double-helix configuration with two strands of matched bases into a single strand with single bases. The strand is pulled through the nanopore by an electrical field that attracts the negatively charged strand. But in the nanopore, some layers are electrically switched on to fix the strand in place for a tick of an electronic clock while another layer makes its measurement.
Reference: Cnet
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