Abstract
Optical approaches for observing the dynamics of single molecules have required pico- to nanomolar concentrations of fluorophore in order to isolate individual molecules. However, many biologically relevant processes occur at micromolar ligand concentrations, necessitating a reduction in the conventional observation volume by three orders of magnitude. We show that arrays of zero-mode waveguides consisting of subwavelength holes in a metal film provide a simple and highly parallel means for studying single-molecule dynamics at micromolar concentrations with microsecond temporal resolution. We present observations of DNA polymerase activity as an example of the effectiveness of zero-mode waveguides for performing single-molecule experiments at high concentrations.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 682-686 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Science |
Volume | 299 |
Issue number | 5607 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 31 2003 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General