Isolating a Single Microtubule in Nanofluidic Device

TL;DR

This paper introduces a nanofluidic device designed to isolate and study individual microtubules for phononic measurements, enabling new insights into biological phononic topological wave-modes.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel nanofluidic platform capable of isolating single microtubules for phonon analysis in biological systems, bridging a gap in measurement techniques.

Findings

Effective microtubule isolation demonstrated

Nanofluidic device compatible with phonon measurements

Platform adaptable for biopolymer studies

Abstract

Biological systems have been theoretically predicted to support phononic topological wave-modes, similar to the ones existing in meta-materials. The existing methods to measure these modes, however cannot be applied to biological systems; new techniques have to be developed to accommodate phononic measurements in life science. Motivated by this perspective, we report a nanofluidic device for studying one microtubule at a time. Microchannels etched into fused-silica using reactive ion etching were interfaced with nanochannels written and etched by electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching, and sealed with a PDMS-coated glass coverslip. The microchannels are 1 micron deep and 100 micron wide, and the nanochannels are 150 nm deep and 750 nm wide, they are tested to be effective for isolating microtubules. The methods presented here are for an adaptable nanofluidic platform for phonon measurements in biopolymers made of proteins or DNA.