Overview

Gender

male

Professor Branton is Higgins Professor of Biology Emeritus at Harvard University.His research areas include Nanopore technology and single molecule probing, molecular organization of cell membranes and cell biology.He has held positions at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA and the University of California, Berkeley.

The Harvard Nanopore Group is led by Professor Daniel Branton and Professor Jene Golovchenko. The group has been investigating electronic methods for very rapidly detecting, characterising and sequencing single molecules of DNA. A detector consisting of a single nanopore in a thin, insulating, solid-state membrane could mimic the function of alpha hemolysin pores in lipid bilayers, while serving as a platform for integrated electronic detection devices.The group’s research has lead to the development of a new ion beam based method for creating nanoscale structures in semiconductors called "ion beam sculpting".

The Group is also developing other applications that may utilize the sensitivity and speed of nanopore probing, and is investigating the physics of DNA polymer movement through the confined space of a nanopore, coordinating the application of material science tools to fabricate solid-state nanopores, and developing the associated biochemistry, molecular biology, electronics, and signal processing to effect molecular recognition.