Highly Tunable Conical Nanopores for Biomolecular Sensing

This project aims to develop and characterize novel solid-state nanopores for cost-effective, rapid, ultra-sensitive, andlabel-free detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers. The primary scientific objectives are: (i) to fabricate conicalnanopores with precisely controlled geometries using the ion track etching technology, (ii) to comprehensivelycharacterize these nanopores using synchrotron-based small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), and (iii) to demonstratetheir use for detecting neurofilament light chain (NfL) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) at physiologically relevantconcentrations using resistive pulse sensing (RPS) combined with machine learning (ML) assisted analysis.