Digital molecular kinetics enabled by large-scale nanopore arrays for multidimensional biophysical profiling
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: While widely used, traditional technologies like surface plasmon resonance (SPR) are limited by narrow temporal windows (transient capture and baseline drift), dynamic heterogeneity, and poor physiological (37°C) performance. Meanwhile, early nanopore approaches are often constrained by limited throughput and heavy reliance on customized modification schemes. Here, we present a digital molecular kinetics (DMK) platform based on large-scale nanopore arrays. By introducing a universal coupling and probe reporting system, DMK achieves broad versatility across diverse molecular pairs, including proteins, peptides, small molecules, DNA, and polymerase complexes. In addition to accurately recovering classical SPR association and dissociation rate constants, by harnessing massive single-molecule event analysis, DMK breaks traditional performance boundaries: it facilitates robust thermodynamic-kinetic profiling across a wide temperature range, resolves distinct conformations in heterogeneous samples, enables ultra-low dissociation rate quantification via maximum likelihood estimation, and reveals energy wells via voltage gradients for binding analysis against environmental perturbations. Furthermore, DMK enables the capture of rapid binding events missed by SPR, offering a new perspective on molecular interaction complexity. This platform offers an effective alternative and upgrade to SPR, opening a digital paradigm for complex molecular analysis and drug discovery.
Language: English
Subfield: Biomedical Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7224499542