Graphene could accelerate genomics

From nanotechweb.org: tech update:

The "wonder material" graphene could soon be used to analyse DNA at a record-breaking pace. That's the claim of a physicist in the US who has proposed a new way of reading the sequence of chemical bases in a DNA strand by sending the molecule through a tiny slit in a graphene sheet. While the technique has yet to be verified experimentally, if successful it could be eligible for the $10 million X Prize for Genomics, which has set the challenge of developing a new rapid and low-cost sequencing technology. The genetic profile — or "genome" — of an organism is determined by recording the full sequence of acid base pairs that make up its DNA. In 2003, the Human Genome Project made history by determining the entire human genetic code — 3 billion DNA base pairs that took 13 years to analyse using a technique that has changed very little since the late 1970s.

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