UC Irvine

Over the previous three decades both experimental and theoretical research into nanopores has been gaining momentum. It has been discovered that nanopores play an important role in controlling important molecular and cellular scale physiological processes. It has also been discovered that both synthetic and biotic nanopores may have groundbreaking potential for both biomedical devices and scientific research instruments. In particular, nanopores are currently being studied for their potentially cost effective application to DNA sequencing and protein, drug, and pathogen sensing. Additionally, research into the time-dependent electrical properties of nanopores may aid in our understanding and ability to model the behavior of physiological nanoscale membrane ion channels. Recent advances in information theory, particularly the development of time-dependent measures of Shannon entropies, have opened the door to studying these nanoscale systems from a new angle. In this work we will share results of the novel application of these techniques, highlighting their ability to track autonomous fluctuations in nanopore currents. We will also discuss a proposed extension of these techniques that may allow short-time scale prediction of current fluctuations in the future. Additionally, we will discuss a process for testing for potentially interesting nonlinear structure in nanopore interevent interval sequences, where the events are current fluctuations. Lastly, we will discuss some potential future research directions in light of what we have learned.